


All Together, Cousins

by CrimsonWriter



Series: Cousins 'verse [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: ADHD, Aegis - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Bigotry & Prejudice, Book 3: The Titan's Curse, Book 4: The Battle of the Labyrinth, Child Soldiers, Children, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Greeks and Romans, Humor, Invisibility Cap, Jason is a Dork, Monsters, Mortality, Nico is a Dork, Past Child Abuse, Percy is a Dork, Prophetic Dreams, Protective Percy Jackson, Protective Thalia Grace, Riptide | Anaklusmos, Roman Piper McLean, Serious Injuries, Slow To Update, The Labyrinth - Freeform, Weapons, beware ridiculous update times, powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-01-30 04:59:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 101,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12646587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrimsonWriter/pseuds/CrimsonWriter
Summary: When Thalia ran away with her toddler brother, Jason, she slowly gathered her cousins: she and her cousins being Big Three children. As Jason gets older and their motley group expands to six, Thalia resigns herself to the fact that she won't always be the leader of the pack. As she accepts that, something more is coming, able to challenge even the gods above.





	1. Thalia and Jason Grace

Thalia screamed and hugged her baby brother to her chest tighter as the hellhounds closed in for the kill, scrambling against the gravel road. Jason clutched at his sister's shirt, looking up at her with the same electrical blue eyes that Thalia had, that they had both inherited from their father.

She darted into a side tunnel and pressed herself flat against the wall, trying to pant quietly. There was the thunder of paws against the ground, and then it was gone. Thalia sobbed into her brother's hair with relief.

"'Lia?" Jason asked quietly.

Thalia took a deep, steadying breath. "Yeah, Jace?"

"I cold…" Jason said quietly, looking remorseful, like he'd been caught doing something bad.

"No no no," Thalia assured him. "It's okay, Jason. Don't worry, we'll get something going. We just have to get somewhere safe. Far away from here. Here." She took off her jacket and wrapped it around him. The entire thing was way too big—it was that way on Thalia, so it absolutely dwarfed Jason—but it gave Thalia an idea. She set down Jason momentarily and turned the jacket upside down, and instructed him to step into the arm holes. She zipped the jacket up, hoisted Jason onto her chest again, and tied the loose part of the sleeves of the jacket around her waist. She took off her belt, looped it around Jason and her own torso, and cinched it tightly enough so that Jason would be secure, but he wouldn't be crushed. This left Thalia's hands free.

Jason smiled up at his sister. "Warm."

Thalia smiled and gently poked his nose with a finger. He giggled and covered up his face. After a couple of seconds, he peeked through his fingers, and then raised one hand, and poked Thalia's nose as well. There was the distinct sound of an electrical discharge, and Jason shocked his sister with enough voltage to temporarily stun a normal human. On Thalia, however, it just tickled. She laughed and rubbed her nose so that the feeling would subside. Jason laughed at the face his sister was making.

People passed by the alleyway, talking noisily, and Thalia abruptly stopped laughing and clamped a hand over Jason's mouth. As quickly as she could with a two-year-old strapped to her chest, she darted out the other end of the alley.

She quickly settled into a brisk pace. Keeping to the shadows of the night as much as possible, she eventually left New York City. At one point, she looked down to see Jason curled up in the jacket, his head resting against her collarbone, sound asleep. Thalia unwound her scarf enough so that Jason's other ear was covered up, so that he wouldn't be at risk to infections in his ear, and so that his head wouldn't get so cold. She guessed that he had been lulled asleep by the steady swaying rhythm.

Thalia made it to the edge of the city, and was now surrounded by trees. She gathered together a pile of dry wood and zapped it. Fire ignited instantly.

Soothed by the warm light, Thalia propped herself up on a nearby tree, arms wrapped loosely around her baby brother, and was lulled to sleep by the crackling fire and crickets chirping about her.

* * *

She woke to someone taking Jason.

Thalia screamed a battle cry and kicked whoever it was in the crotch before her eyes even opened. She grabbed Jason and stuffed him down the jacket again, scrambling away from the would-be kidnapper, instinctively kicking into a battle stance with a large stick as a weapon. Despite the fact that she could break it with her bare hands, she deemed it an acceptable weapon because frankly, she didn't have anything else.

"That underhanded trick does not work on females," the kidnapper said. "Hurtful, yes, but not incapacitating."

"The streets aren't fair," Thalia snapped, clutching Jason with one hand to make sure he was still there.

"You're the one who ran away," the female kidnapper said mildly.

"I wasn't complaining," Thalia growled. "I was stating a fact. Now who are you?"

The woman drew herself up. "I am Lady Hera."

"Ah, yes, my father's wife," Thalia said dryly. "I'm so sorry that we're your husband's bastards, but _that_ is _not_ grounds for _kidnapping_!"

Hera's jaw tightened. "Admittedly, I am angry with Zeus. However, that is not the reason you and Jason must be separated."

Thalia's eyes were steely. "Give me one good reason why I should be separated from _my baby brother_?"

"That is nothing I can share with you."

"Does it involve Jason dying if he stays with me?" Thalia growled.

Hera hesitated. "It's a possibility. I don't believe so, but there is that marginal chance."

"I'll take my chances," Thalia stated flatly.

Hera threw up her hands in exasperation. "You're such a _child_!"

"That's because I'm _ten_ ," Thalia snapped. "At least I have an excuse."

"Jason isn't even Greek!" Hera cried.

"So?!" Thalia screamed. "My mother's abusive, my father abandoned me, I'm on the streets, protecting myself and my brother against muggers, monsters, and who knows what else! I _absolutely refuse_ to lose _any more family_!"

Hera's eyes softened. "I'm sorry, Thalia. I really am. I am the goddess of family. But would you rather the loss of your brother, or the possible restarting of the Civil War?"

"To me, both options sound equally bad," Thalia said dryly, clutching Jason tighter.

"He's Roman, Thalia. Your brother is a Roman, a son of Jupiter," Hera said finally. "When the Greeks and Romans come together, they clash. They fight. Blood is spilled. Wars are raged. _Please_ , Thalia."

Thalia's eyes narrowed. "Fine, take him. Take him, and I will move heaven and hell to find him again. Take him, and I will find a god or goddess that I can beat that knows about both sides, and I will first ask them to tell me where the Roman camp is, and if that doesn't work, I will _shock_ the information out of them. Take him, and I will tear Olympus down more thoroughly than any war. And when I do that, I will seek you out, and I will make your demise just as pain-filled as my life without my baby brother. And trust me, this is a promise. And I _always_ follow through with my promises."

"You can't possibly follow through with this one."

"No," Thalia agreed. "Not yet. Not now. Later, when I get older. Just think, for my sixteenth birthday, I get to raze Olympus to the ground for separating me from my brother."

Thalia said the last sentence in a cool, controlled voice, watching as Hera got paler and paler.

Hera began to glow until it was nearly blinding, and Thalia shut her eyes, clamping a hand over Jason's eyes, dropping her stick.

When the glow faded, Hera was gone. Thalia opened her eyes and set Jason next to the smoldering coals of the fire as she gathered wood as if nothing happened. She dropped the load into the coals, zapped it, and stood, brushing her hands off. She studied her brother curiously.

"Roman, huh?" she mused. "Based on Hera's reaction, this probably hasn't happened before, Greek and Roman children in the same family. They're probably waiting anxiously to see if this blows up in Zeus's face." She snorted. "I don't think they understand the words _sibling bond_."

Jason struggled free of the jacket. Thalia sat next to the fire, next to her brother. Already guessing what Jason was doing, she let him go behind a tree and relieve himself. She could see a little tuft of blond hair. When he came back from around the tree, he made a beeline towards the jacket and snuggled in. Thalia smiled at the fact that her improvisation was appreciated. She knelt in front of him.

"Okay, Jason. I'm going into the woods to get enough wood to make a bow, so that I can hunt and we can eat. If that lady comes back, or if those big dogs from yesterday come, or even just another homeless person, you scream as loud as you can and try and shock the heck out the person, okay?"

Jason grinned and showed two fingers, which had electricity running between them.

Thalia smiled proudly. "Good. Stay near the fire, do me a favor and try not to burn yourself, okay?"

Jason nodded. "Okay, 'Alia!"

Thalia resisted the urge to 'aww', and simply smile reassuringly at him, and trooped through the woods, looking for strong, supple, straight branches to carve into a bow.

* * *

Over the next three days, Thalia worked on her bow, killed six hellhounds and about a dozen snake women with the branch she pointed at Hera with, stoked the fire eight times over, and kept Jason well-fed and mostly warm and happy.

To her delight and disgust, monsters often kept the weapons of the demigods that they had defeated. Before dissolving them, Thalia happily disarmed them and then stuck them with the pointy end of whatever she confiscated. At one point, Thalia had tied up one of the snake women and taken her quiver of arrows, her jacket (which was quite warm, although it smelled a little snaky), her stick with what looked like a gigantic metal toothpick coming out of the end of it (she later found out that it was a Roman weapon, called a _pilus_ ), and the snake women's anklet that was studded with Celestial bronze spikes.

Thalia was growing a collection of weapons. For once, she thanked her father that she attracted so many monsters. She had a badly bent sword, a long knife, a spear, a quiver of arrows, a hammer (like a true battle hammer, it made Thalia wonder about the demigod that used to wield it), the _pila_ (the giant metal toothpick), and a half-finished bow.

Jason got the long knife, and Thalia generally took the spear when it came to battles at the moment. She was contemplating on whether or not to give Jason the battle hammer, or if she should use it first to beat the sword back into shape.

On the night of the second day, she came up with a third idea.

Before Jason woke, she went to the store and managed to get a used shovel for a dollar, which was an unheard of price in New York City. When she went back to the camp, Jason was thankfully still sleeping, and Thalia set to work, digging under the tree's roots. No, she wasn't trying to uproot the tree, merely tunnel under it enough to store weapons and things that they might need in the future.

By noon, she was now under the tree, and she'd had to dig herself back out a couple of times from the amount of dirt she was displacing. Another two hours, and she had made a circular room about five feet wide and five feet tall; it was big enough to store their weapons and it was a place to sleep if they needed to hide.

When she had finished the first of many hideouts to come, she crawled out and waved to Jason, who started laughing hysterically at Thalia's dirt-covered form. Thalia's grin turned wry. "C'mon in, little brother," she said, picking up Jason and bringing him into the hideout. Jason scrambled from Thalia's arms, looking around. He bent over and touched the dirt.

"Cold," he commented. "Neat."

"Yup," Thalia said, smiling at him. "We'll be putting the sword and the hammer here, as well as any other weapons we get."

Jason frowned. "Home?"

Thalia shook her head. "We've got to get away from our mother. The farther away, the better. This will be our home temporarily, but only for another couple of days."

Jason nodded his head solemnly, but Thalia really wasn't sure about how much he understood.

* * *

 

_This is how their days passed: making hideouts, fighting monsters, drifting farther away from the City that Never Sleeps. For two years or so, the days passed this way—until monsters drove the siblings back to New York, back to their first hideout. This was where they discovered a little boy, about a year older than Jason, with gravity-defying black hair and striking sea-green eyes._


	2. Percy Jackson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet the Jacksons.

Thalia and Jason cautiously made their way to the tree that Thalia dug the first hideout under, listening for danger, their eyes sweeping the landscape. Jason, the top of his head now halfway up Thalia's back, him being three feet, ten inches against Thalia's five feet, two inches.

They stood back-to-back, awaiting danger, Thalia with her bow taut and nocked, Jason with his long knife in one hand and a short sword called a _gladius_ in the other.

Something popped, and Thalia jerked her arrow towards the sound. Jason glanced at her, and she nodded once, and jerked her chin in the direction of the noise.

Thalia found the source of the noise first, almost by accident. Suddenly the tip of her arrow was almost touching a nose. A human nose.

Yelping, startled, Thalia scrambled backwards, thinking she almost shot her brother. Then she realized that Jason didn't have green eyes, or unruly black hair. Jason wasn't dead on his feet from tiredness. And Jason wasn't seven-ish.

The boy seemed just as startled, like, _a scream escaped his mouth_ , kind of startled. Thalia guessed he didn't like that his nose almost brushed a deadly weapon.

Jason whipped towards the commotion, to see Thalia scrambling away from the boy and said boy hollering like a banshee.

"Don't kill him!" Thalia yelped as Jason charged forward. She unstrung her bow, and dropped her bow and arrow to the ground, so as to grab the six-year-old by the shoulders.

The boy stopped hollering, looking at the pair warily. "Who are you people?!"

Thalia blinked. "I'm Thalia, this is my brother, Jason. I'm sorry I almost killed you."

The boy blinked, like he wasn't used to people apologizing to him. "It's okay," he said softly. "Thanks for stopping your brother."

Thalia knelt down to the kid's level. "What's your name, kiddo? Why are you out here?"

He smiled a little. "I'm Percy. Percy Jackson. These things came to the apartment, tore off the door, and Gabe and his buddies all got thrown, and my mom tried to stop them, but they kept coming after me, so I ran to my room and climbed out the fire escape, and I thought that they'd follow me instead of going after Mom, so I just ran in a straight line, ya know? And they _did_ follow me, they followed me for a long while, but then they started getting closer, and I ran between buildings until I got to here. I don't know where this is. Where are we?"

Thalia, startled, blurted out: "You're a demigod?!" Then, to Jason, "He's a demigod?!"

Jason glanced at his sister, and said, "You really expect me to know?"

Thalia's speech patterns halted completely as her brother mimicked her perfectly when she got irritated at Jason's constant questions.

"What's a demigod?" Percy asked.

"A demigod is a discussion for another time," Thalia said firmly. "Do you like your mother?"

Percy grinned and nodded. Then his face fell. "I don't like Smelly Gabe, though."

Thalia nodded slowly. "That's okay, kiddo. We'll take care of you. We just need to pay a visit to your mother, so that she knows that you're okay."

Percy swallowed.

"Where do you live?" Thalia questioned gently.

Percy scuffed the ground with his foot. "Manhattan."

Thalia whistled. "Jeez, kiddo, you ran a long way, especially for someone who has no endurance training. C'mon. Let's go see Mrs. Jackson."

* * *

 

Thalia rang the doorbell, Jason and Percy on either side of her. She could hear someone grumbling, "I'm comin', I'm comin', hold yer horses!"

He sounded like he was drunk. Thalia swallowed, now apprehensive about bringing Percy back, even for a short time. Jason may not remember their mother, but Thalia did. She remembered how abusive she was when she was drunk. Thalia was treated like a slave from just after Jason had been born up until she and Jason ran away.

She refrained from shuddering when he opened the door. Not only did he look like a walrus stuck in thrift store clothes, he radiated a stench that could mask a dozen Big Three kids. It was next to a miracle that the monsters smelled Percy. Either that, or Percy was much stronger than your average demigod.

"We're not interested in whatever yer sellin'," he slurred. Then his eyes landed on Percy. "Ya little punk! Ya had the nerve to come back!"

Smelly Gabe (Thalia presumed that this was the person Percy had called 'Smelly Gabe', as it was an apt description) fairly roared this into Percy's face, who flinched away from the stench of moldy pizza and gym shorts. Beside Thalia, Jason wrinkled his nose, but wisely kept quiet.

"He won't be coming back," Thalia said coolly, interrupting the horrid man's slurred tirade. "However, I wish to speak with Mrs. Jackson."

Gabe narrowed his eyes at Thalia. "He won't be coming back?"

Thalia shook her head. "You'll never see him again."

He stepped aside to let the threesome in. As Percy went by him, Gabe grabbed him.

Thalia had an arrow nocked and pointed at the man's head faster than he could blink. "As you'll never see him again, Percy can now be considered either a brother or a son to me. As you just made—and are still making, in fact—a very threatening maneuver on my adopted son, I am liable to turn you into the police for child abuse and battery assault. Even if I wasn't able to, I am a very accurate shot. I can kill you and your three buddies that are attempting to sneak up behind me within eight seconds. I know, I've done it before."

Gabe slowly released Percy's collar and backed away.

Thalia smiled in satisfaction. "Good. Now, Mrs. Jackson—or at least I'm assuming that you're Mrs. Jackson?"

The brown-haired woman had walked in halfway through Thalia's speech. She blinked, and the first thing she said, not 'oh my god I have a terrorist in my house' or even, 'why does a twelve-year-old have deadly weapons?' Oh no, Mrs. Jackson said, "Oh, please, call me Sally."

Thalia flicked her eyes towards Sally in surprise. "Uh, do you have somewhere private we could talk?"

She nodded an affirmative, and turned back towards the hall. Percy followed after his mother, and after a head jerk, Jason followed Percy. Thalia followed up with her bow still taut.

Sally sat down on the edge of a bed. Percy climbed up onto her lap, and she hugged him tightly. "What's going on?"

Thalia sat down. "As you know, your son was attacked by monsters today. Jason and I found him at our first hideout, lost and extremely tired."

Sally looked at her son disapprovingly. "Didn't I tell you to not talk to strangers?"

"To be fair, he was panicked. I thought he was an enemy and nearly shot him," Thalia said sheepishly.

"She said sorry," Percy said quickly, as if that made it all better. Thalia highly doubted it. If someone nearly shot Jason, she'd go mother bear on that person.

Sally buried her face in her son's hair. "So he goes to camp?"

Thalia exhaled. "If he's a son of who I'm thinking of, no, he doesn't. He comes with us."

Sally looked at Thalia skeptically.

Thalia studied Percy. "Hard to tame, blue-black hair. Sea-green eyes. Mediterranean complexion. Laid-back, go-with-the-flow personality, loyal as the tide. He truly is his father's son. Me and Jason, well except for the eyes, we basically got nothing from our dad."

"Son of Jupiter," Jason introduced himself.

"Daughter of Zeus," Thalia said. "And he's a son of Poseidon. You're dealing with demigods, here, Mrs. Sally."

Sally shook her head, laughing a little. "Actually, I believe you are quite like your father, Thalia. You are as stubborn as a rock and really don't introduce new things well."

Thalia gaped at her. "You met my father?"

Sally nodded. "I've met all of the Big Three. Poseidon as a lover, Zeus tried to blast me when I was bearing Percy because I screamed at him, and Hades visited me in person once. We had an interesting conversation about Poseidon."

Now Sally had three gaping kids in the room.

"And here I thought _I_ was the only one who could scream at Zeus and live," Thalia said, her eyes as wide as saucers.

Jason shut his mouth with an audible _click_.

Percy had turned around to face his mother on her lap, his bewildered sea-green eyes huge. "What's a demigod?"

Sally smiled sadly at her son. "A demigod is a person who is half-god, like a child of a god and a normal person."

Percy chewed on his bottom lip. "They called me a demigod."

Sally nodded. "You are a demigod."

Percy chewed on his bottom lip some more. "So I did actually explode the sink into Gabe's face?"

That broke the somber mood. Thalia burst into half-hysterical laughter. Sally bit her lip and tried to keep a disapproving look on her face, but she kept breaking character and letting out a little chuckle at the memory. Jason was snickering at the mental image.

Thalia gasped for air, sounding like a dying duck. "Yeah, you probably did, kiddo!"

Sally nodded, trying to keep a straight face. "You're willing to take him on?"

Thalia shrugged. "He has just as much right to claim blood ties with me as Jason does. Admittedly, not as much, but still. He's my cousin. He can't possibly be worse than me on my bad days."

Sally nodded, looking distracted.

"Percy, why don't you show Jason your room?" Thalia suggested gently.

Percy nodded and hopped off his mother's lap, dragging Jason with him.

"Percy is mellow until someone gets hurt," Sally warned. "He does not care for his own safety. You do not know how right you were when you said that he was as loyal as the tide. That sink he mentioned? Gabe was close to hitting me. Percy made the sink explode, probably not intentionally, and Gabe was too stunned to do anything. He passed out for the rest of the day."

Thalia nodded, absorbing the information.

"He's dyslexic and ADHD. He has a strange craving for blue food, just a heads up if he says something strange, like, 'why are the pancakes brown?'"

Thalia laughed. "Dyslexia and ADHD are normal in demigods. The blue food, not so much."

Sally smiled.

Thalia hesitated, but then said: "I wouldn't mind making your house a hideout, Mrs. Sally, if Gabe wasn't here. I know you married him to cover Percy's scent, but…"

"I underestimated how strong it would be," Sally nodded rubbing her face tiredly.

Thalia smirked. "The man is stinky enough to cover a dozen Big Three's kids, but I think Percy has a knack for getting into trouble."

"You are right," Sally agreed.

Thalia thought. "We'll check up on you in six months' time?"

Sally nodded.

Hesitating at first, Thalia hugged the woman. Sally, in contrast, had no such hesitations as she hugged Thalia.

"You are strong to have lasted as long as you have," Thalia whispered in her ear. "You have managed to gain more respect from me than my own father has from me."

Sally laughed softly. "Let's not tell him about it, okay?"

"I haven't seen him since I was seven, I doubt I'll see him tomorrow," Thalia said dryly.

Sally smiled mischievously. "Let's not get Mr. Zeusie-Poo jealous now, okay?"

Thalia bit her lip, her shoulders shaking. _Zeusie-Poo_. Gods, that was pure gold.

* * *

 

Thalia studied Percy critically, annoyed about the shortage of weapons. They had the battle hammer from before, the bent sword, and the _pilus_ that was taller than Thalia and weighed as much as Jason did. She ran a hand through her spiky hair, frustrated. The battle hammer was large enough that only she was proportionate to it; the sword was bent, and even if it wasn't, it'd be almost as tall as Percy; and Percy definitely couldn't lift the _pilus_.

She sighed. "We'll be staying here awhile, guys," she said finally. "We've got a sword to fix."

To accentuate her statement, she started collecting dry wood, and plopped into the hollow in the ground where they last had a fire there. She pointed a finger carelessly, now having mastered the art of setting fires with lightning, and with a loud _POP_ , the fire roared to life.

When she had discharged the lightning, there was a small _click_ , nearly drowned out by Thalia's lightning. Both Thalia and Jason turned towards Percy, who sheepishly put the disposable camera down.

"What?" he protested when they kept staring. "It was cool!"

Thalia laughed. "Every time we make a stop for the night, I do that. Trust me, the novelty will wear off quickly."

"What does 'novelty' mean?" both boys asked simultaneously.

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "It means that the shock and excitement that came from the new thing would wear off quickly."

Jason and Percy nodded thoughtfully.

"I'm starting to seriously think you two are brothers, not cousins," Thalia said, amused.

They looked at each other, and then looked back at Thalia.

Thalia started laughing. "You asked the same question at the same time, you both nodded the same way, and now you just looked at each other without any hints, and then back at me. Two puppets attached to the same string."

Percy made a face. "Then wouldn't that mean that Jason was on top of me? Jason looks kind of heavy…"

"I am not heavy!" Jason protested.

"Speaking as someone who carried you until you were three and a half, yes, you are heavy," Thalia said dryly.

Jason turned towards his sister. "You're my sister! You're supposed to be on _my_ side!"

"I refuse to argue with truth," Thalia said cheekily, gathering more wood. "Hey, Percy, could you get us some water?"

Percy looked around for a water source.

Jason smiled a little. "Percy, you have to summon the water."

Percy glared at him. "How do I do that? I don't think it'll come if I call, 'heeeeere, water, water, water, water!'"

Thalia turned away to the fire to hide her silent laughter. She tossed the branches onto the already burning merrily wood. When she turned back around, Jason looked insulted. "No, you have to _make_ it come to you."

"Well, give me a bucket and I'll _make_ it come to me," Percy snapped, glaring at the ground.

Jason rolled his eyes. "No, you would go to the water and then lug it back here. That isn't forcing the water to come to you."

Percy and Jason glared at each other.

_Oh yeah, best friends and worst enemies_ , Thalia thought with amusement, warming her legs next to the fire.

"You say that _I_ need to do it. Well, you _clearly_ know more than I do, so _you_ can do it as you obviously know how," Percy snapped at him.

"I control the _air_ , not _water_ ," Jason said, holding out his hand and having a miniature twister twirl around the palm of his hand. "I dare _you_ to do this."

"Okay, guys," Thalia intervened. "Jason, you really aren't helping Percy get the water, and Percy, sarcastic remarks are unneeded—"

Percy glared at the ground harder. Suddenly the ground rumbled, and the ground next to Percy exploded in a shower of water and mud. A geyser twice as tall as Percy gushed not a foot away from the son of the sea.

Percy smirked, perfectly dry. "I got the water."

Then, he got out the disposable camera again, and snapped a picture of the jet of water.

Thalia could just see what the caption would be: _My first on-purpose geyser._

Jason looked dumbfounded. He also looked cold, as he was soaked.

* * *

 

"What. The. Heck?!" Thalia squeaked, spear at ready.

Percy laughed a little. "Three of the Big Three packs a lot of scent, Thals."

"Jason and I never got a freaking _army_ of monsters!"

"We're in California, Sis," Jason said dryly. "We've never been to Cali before, because of Mount Tam."

Percy frowned as he readied his sword. "What's Mount Tam?"

"Mount Tam is where the ruins of Mount Othyrus lies," Thalia explained. "It's also where Atlas holds up the sky. Because of both things, California is packed with monsters like New York traffic."

"And you're the one wondering why we have an army of monsters surrounding us," Percy said dryly.

The three of them stood back-to-back, Thalia with her bow drawn, Jason and Percy with their _gladius_ and sword in their hands, respectively. Thalia was now 13, and the boys were six and seven, both rapidly catching up to her, standing at 4'1" next to Thalia's 5'4".

Suddenly the monsters surged towards them, and Thalia shot at the leading monster, disintegrating it instantly. Jason stabbed forward with his _gladius_ and slashed lethally with his long knife, killing two of the monsters that came within reach. Percy swept his sword in a wide arc, nicking one and disintegrating another two monsters as well. Thalia fired another three arrows before she realized that the monsters weren't attacking, they were running.

Thalia pointed her bow in the direction that the monsters were running from. Jason and Percy followed her lead, flanking her on either side, ready to fight. They were ignored by the monsters, except a stray tail that they all had to jump over or end up on their faces. Jason somehow managed to stay in the air. Thalia and Percy would've stared at him, but it frankly wasn't the time.

Jason poked his sister's shoulder. "Romans," he whispered.

Thalia's eyes flashed with understanding. "Good or bad?" she asked.

Jason shrugged.

"Percy, you must stay close to me," Thalia instructed quietly. "And for the love of the gods, please don't open your smart mouth."

"None of us love the gods all that much," Percy pointed out.

Thalia rephrased. "And for the love of your mother, please don't open your smart mouth."

Percy's retort was cut off by Thalia's maneuvering. "Okay," he said meekly.

Thalia smiled at him. "It'll be okay, Mom will be our top priority once we get out of this situation."

The Romans marched up to them. Leading them was a man with in full battle armor and a purple cape. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"Whoa, mister!" Thalia said, drawing her arrow tighter against the string. "I don't know who you are, I just got done being attacked by monsters, and I've got two little kids to protect. If anything, _you're_ the one who should be answering _my_ questions."

"I outrank you, little girl," he said stiffly.

"There is no higher ranking than a son and daughter of Jupiter, Praetor," Jason said coolly. Lightning casually crackled between two of Thalia's fingers. The wind picked up.

"Let's put it this way, Praetor," Thalia said after Jason rather effectively made the guy lose his speech patterns for a bit. "You're facing three kids of the Elder Three that have been on our own for years. We have powers, and we definitely know how to use them. We have our chosen weapons, and we definitely know how to use them. We have battle strategies and signals that are only used by us. Even against forty demigods that are most likely at the top of their class, we can most likely hold our own."

"There haven't been any kids of the Elder Three in nearly a century," the guy said evenly.

Thalia shut her eyes, calling on her patience. "I'm sorry, are you blind? Or am I just seeing my brother hovering in the air, suspended by nothing? Am I hallucinating?"

Percy peered at Jason. "Nope! I see him too."

Thalia elbowed him gently.

"Then who is he?" the Praetor said, gesturing towards Percy.

Percy grinned at him. The Praetor's flask of water unscrewed itself. The water in the flask floated out and hovered in front of his face, taking the shape of the Praetor's flask. Then it changed into the shape of a dolphin, and then a trident. Then it plunged back into the flask.

"He's six!" the Praetor spluttered.

Percy disagreed. "I'm seven. Jason is six. Thalia is thirteen."

"Thalia is the only one old enough to join the Legion. She'll have to come with us. You can stay in New Rome," the Praetor said, advancing.

Thalia fired a warning shot that sheared off the plume on his helmet. He stopped. "All or nothing," Thalia said with steel in her voice

"The two boys are too young, too inexperienced—"

" _All. Or. Nothing._ "

"A daughter of Jupiter would be at the top of the Legion. I'm sorry, but they can stay in New Rome, not bunk with the Legion."

"Nothing it is, then," Thalia said coolly.

"I am your Praetor, girl—"

"You are _not_ my Praetor. You are a sixteen-year-old _boy_ who is blustering and throwing his weight around. And I am _not_ joining the Legion. Not if my brothers can't come."

She knocked her arrow against her bow twice. The boys left her side and disappeared into the trees.

"C'mon, Miss Thalia," the Praetor said sternly.

"Come any closer and I'll shock the living daylights out of you," Thalia said calmly. "Gold conducts electricity. It should be fun to watch my harasser fall to the ground, convulsing uncontrollably."

She turned on her heel and swiftly, silently, walked towards the forest where Jason and Percy had hidden.

"C'mon out, guys! Let's go visit Mom," they heard her say. "They can shove their offer where the sun don't shine."

There was a laugh.

* * *

 

"Gods, I love your cooking," Thalia said, her eyes closed with bliss. Her expression was mirrored on Jason's face, while Percy was simply digging in, and Sally was watching with amusement.

"Sis is a good cook," Jason said slowly. "She doesn't have the same seasonings, though."

Thalia opened her eyes and gave her brother a wry look. "I dare you to find a variety of seasonings in the wild that won't kill us."

Jason scratched his head. "Okay, fair point."

For once, the three were relaxed. Thalia's bow and quiver and spear were in the living room somewhere, and Jason's _gladius_ and knife and Percy's sword were in Percy's bedroom. They were clean, warm, and being fed. Nothing better than that.

Thalia cut another piece of her steak. "How is the book coming?"

Sally gave her a grin. "It's almost done."

Percy bounced in his seat. "Oh! Oh! What's it called?!"

Sally's grin turned mischievous. " _To Tame the Sea_."

Thalia snickered. "Hey, could I borrow that book? Does it work for the _son_ of the sea?"

Sally got up from the table, laughing. She went into the kitchen and brought out _more food_.

"Dear gods, how did you cook all this without us noticing?!" Thalia cried, staring.

"It was hard," Sally agreed. "I kept telling you the smell was left over from breakfast."

"It does last that long sometimes," Percy agreed. "But normally only in the kitchen, not in the _entire house_."

Sally smiled sheepishly.

"Okay, whoa, Jason," she chuckled. "Smaller bites, jeez." She took the knife and steak from Jason and proceeded to cut it up into smaller pieces. She set the knife on the plate and slid it back over to her brother.

Percy laughed. "Why were you growling when you were trying to cut it up, Air Head?"

"You would too if you were frustrated, Kelpy!" Jason protested. "Besides, Thalia does it!"

"She does not!"

"Yes, I do."

Sally raised an eyebrow at Thalia. The daughter of Zeus mouthed to her, _See why I asked for that book?_

_Do they bicker like this often?_

_What's your definition of 'often'?_

_Daily._

_Then, yes, they do this often. They're too much alike to get along all the time. They've had to duke it out a couple times._

As if on cue, Percy's water glass started to swirl. Thalia took that as a cue to intervene. "Okay, guys, we duked it out yesterday, we don't need to do it again today, please."

Silence settled over the table.

"Hey, Jason, remember that dare you told me to do two years ago?" Percy asked, smiling a little.

Jason looked startled. "What, the tornado thing?"

Percy brought up his hand from under the table, smirking widely. "Not exactly a twister, but close enough."

On his hand was a really tiny hurricane. Eyebrows raised and eyes widened all around the table.

Percy closed his hand, and the hurricane broke apart and scattered with a damp breeze. He went back to eating.

"You didn't react like that when I flew," Jason asked suddenly.

"Trust me, I would've if we hadn't been in the middle of a battle," Thalia admitted.

Sally looked alarmed. "Battle? What battle?"

Percy rubbed his head sheepishly, though Thalia wasn't sure why. "We were in California. Somehow we got turned around and then all of a sudden we were surrounded by an army of monsters. We encountered Romans. Scared the living daylights out of them. And then we made going back to you top priority," Thalia summed up.

Sally turned towards Percy. "You never told me about a battle!"

"I didn't want you to worry!"

Sally sighed. "Percy, in case you haven't noticed, you're a demigod. Demigods' lives are dangerous. Scary. Being a demigod can get you killed in painful, nasty ways. I knew that from the start of my pregnancy with you, and I tried to protect you as much as I could."

"With _Gabe_ around?" Percy asked incredulously.

"Percy," Thalia said quietly, looking at her plate. "Gabe covered up your scent for years. Sally put up with him so that you could be safe from monsters."

Percy froze. He turned towards his mother. "You married Gabe…for me?"

Sally hesitantly nodded.

Almost faster than Thalia could track, Percy was halfway out the door. Thalia got up from her seat. "Gods, I hate having my training used against me," she growled, and darted out the door after him, grabbing her bow and quiver and slinging it on as she ran after her cousin.

After a full two hours, she found him in an alleyway, two miles from where he started. He looked empty. His eyes were lost. Thalia ran up to him and knelt in front of him, panting a little.

"What are you doing here?" Percy said quietly.

Thalia huffed, irritated. "I'm coming after you, you Kelp Head, what else?"

"My mom married him for me," Percy said flatly.

Thalia looked at him. "Now what on _earth_ does that have to do with _me_? I'm _Thalia_. I'm not Ms. Sally. And if it helps any, if I had been in Ms. Sally's position, I would've married him too."

"He hit Mom."

"He hit you, too," Thalia said angrily. "I saw the way you flinched when he yelled at you."

Percy flinched at her angry voice. Thalia breathed out, trying to calm down. "Look, Percy. I know what you went through. Have you ever wondered why Jason and I never visit our mother?"

"I thought she died."

Thalia shook her head. "No, Percy. She was an alcoholic. She was drunk. My mother beat me and treated me like a slave. I ran away when I was ten, dragging a two-year-old Jason with me. I knew, when she discovered me gone, she'd blame it on Jason, and she'd beat him too. I couldn't do that to him, so I took him with me. I gave him my coat in the dead of winter. I defied Hera for him. I fed him, kept him warm and mostly happy. And I would've done the same for you, too, if I'd known about you sooner."

Percy swallowed. Thalia sat down next to him, put an arm around him, and told him stories about their adventures, about Hera, about all the hideouts on the Eastern Seaboard and what happened to get them there. She told him funny stories about some of Jason's antics in the jacket that he still wore today. She told him about Jason's one- or two-worded questions and responses that lasted what seemed like forever. Thalia told him about a lot of things, including what Zeus and Jupiter was like when he was around.

Thalia was so engrossed in her memories that she didn't realize that Percy had fallen asleep until his head bumped against her shoulder. _I talked him to sleep_ , she thought dryly, with a hint of amusement. Carefully, she picked up her cousin and carried him back to the house.

When they arrived back at the apartment, Thalia knocked on the door with her foot, unable to open the door herself, as her arms were full of Percy. Sally opened the door and gasped in shock that Thalia was carrying her son. Then Thalia whispered, "I talked him to sleep, don't worry. He's fine."

Sally snorted a little with laughter and opened the door wider. Thalia stepped into the warmth of the apartment gratefully. "C'mon, little brother," she called softly.

Jason's blond eyebrows rose when he saw Percy being carried by his sister, but followed his sister anyway, into Percy's bedroom. Thalia set Percy gently down on the bed, and then crawled in next to him. She patted the bed next to her for Jason. Jason laid down next to his sister and curled up into a little ball, snuggling next to her. He was out in seconds.

Just as Thalia was about to drift off, Sally came into the bedroom and draped a quilt over the three of them. Warmth enveloped her, and she fell asleep.

* * *

 

Thalia woke to sunlight streaming through the window and herself on her back with an arm wrapped around the boys on either side of her. She was warm and sleepy. Of course, her stomach decided that it was high time to file a complaint. The growl was so loud it woke Jason, who was curled up like a cat and his head was near Thalia's abdomen. His head blearily poked itself out from under the covers.

"Someone kill the sun," he groaned, and ducked back under the covers again. "And kill Thalia's stomach while you're at it," he added, sounding muffled, as Thalia's stomach filed another complaint.

Sally came into the doorway with Percy's disposable camera. A faint _click_ caused Thalia to open her eyes again and Percy to stir beside her.

"Hi, Air Head," he mumbled.

"Hi yourself, Goldfish," she groaned.

"Really?" Jason moaned as he stretched. "I can't sleep with you two talking and Thalia's stomach making a noise like an artillery gun, gods."

"My stomach is not that loud," Thalia mumbled. "So shut up, Sparky."

"Hypocrite."

"I'm not the one that's attempting to shock me," Thalia muttered, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"That's my stomach you just put your elbow in!" Percy yelped, shooting up and hugging his stomach.

"Sorry," Thalia apologized.

"Could you two get _any louder_?" Jason mumbled, burrowing back under the covers.

"Yes," they said simultaneously.

Jason groaned and burrowed deeper. He looked like a lump in the covers. Percy and Thalia looked at each other and grinned evilly. Thalia pinned Jason down and Percy started tickling him through the covers.

"Lemme 'lone!" Jason gasped out between giggles. It was incoherent from the quilt covering him, and for a second Percy stopped tickling him.

"What did he say?" Percy questioned Thalia.

Thalia grinned. "I think he said to do it some more!"

"No I didn't!" Jason shrieked.

Sally snapped another picture, the small click lost in Jason's giggles and Thalia and Percy's mock-evil laughter. Her shoulders were shaking.

For a second, she swore that she saw Poseidon and Zeus standing in the shadowy corner of the room, smiling wryly as they looked at their respective children. Then Poseidon turned to Zeus, and Sally read his lips as _I told you so_. Zeus huffed, and Poseidon laughed soundlessly, and the two (probably imaginary) gods vanished.

"Hey," she called. "Who's ready for breakfast?!"

Thalia's head shot up, and she released Jason. "I am!"

Jason—quilt covering him and all—tackled her to the bed. Percy shrugged, and started tickling Thalia instead.

Sally burst into laughter.

* * *

 

_Many days passed this way for the next five years, laughing and playing and joking around in Ms. Sally's house. Occasionally the three would get cabin fever and roam around the country, but they never went to California again—or at least, not on purpose. Bizarrely, Thalia's sixteenth birthday came and went without a hitch (well, except for her getting dunked into ice water). All three of them grew stronger, and just in time for them, too, for the Titan War was about to start._


	3. Nico and Bianca di Angelo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet the di Angelos.

Twenty-year-old Thalia strode into Westover Hall confidently, Percy and Jason flanking her on her left and right. A teacher stormed up to them. "Might I ask who you are? Weapons are not permitted on the property."

"You may," Percy said cheekily.

Thalia snapped her fingers, manipulating the Mist. "You know us. I'm Thalia, a senior. This is Percy and Jason, who are an eighth grader and a seventh grader, respectively. We are late for the dance. We do not have weapons, but rather, things for the dance."

The teacher scowled. "Move along, you three. If you are to go to the dance, you need to arrive on time. I will let it slide just this once."

Then she stalked away.

"Gods," Jason whispered. "You'd swear someone taped a broomstick to her spine or something."

"I was just thinking the same thing," Percy agreed, watching her go.

"C'mon, guys," Thalia said nervously. "I have a feeling we aren't the only ones watching that stiffly-moving woman."

Percy and Jason stiffened and walked briskly to catch up with Thalia. All three of them stopped dead in the door. "What the crap?" Thalia muttered, staring.

There were black and red party balloons everywhere, with streamers hanging all over the place. The dance floor was virtually empty, and teenage girls moved around in packs. Some of the guys were hanging around awkwardly at the edges, and a there was a small area where guys were just shooting baskets for the heck of it. Kids and teachers alike were milling about in the stands, seemingly doing nothing constructive.

"People go to these for _fun_?" Jason asked, mystified.

"Look!" Percy said urgently, pointing discreetly at the stands. "There they are."

"Are you sure about that dream, Percy?" Jason asked warily as they moved to blend in with the crowd.

Percy shook his head. "I want to write it off as a nightmare, trust me. Despite what my mother says, Hades is seriously creepy on that throne."

"So basically, he wants us to infiltrate Westover Hall," Thalia checked.

"Uh-huh," Percy said.

"Kidnap the di Angelo siblings from right underneath their noses," Jason continued.

"Yup."

"And make sure the Campers, Hunters, or monsters don't get to them first," Thalia said doubtfully.

"Pretty much."

"I hate your dreams."

"Don't worry, I do too."

"Uh, guys?" Jason asked. "I think somebody else already got to step two."

Three heads snapped towards where the di Angelos had been. They were gone. Percy searched the area and the exits for a sign of them. At one of the exits, there was a green cap that the girl had worn.

Percy tapped his cousins' shoulders and pointed at the cap, and began thrusting his way through the crowd, Jason and Thalia following him. In the crowd, three or four other people were making their way to the doorway as well. "Possible enemies on both fronts," Jason warned, also seeing them.

They made it to the doorway before the others in the gym. Percy led his cousins into the entryway they had entered into not ten minutes before. Bianca and Nico di Angelo were up against the wall, fear in their eyes. Bianca narrowed her eyes. Her fists clenched. Nearly too late, Percy got that she was trying to warn him.

He drew his sword and sliced the missile going for his shoulder in half, sending it careening in two directions. Jason flicked his hand, and both pieces slammed against the far wall from the gust of wind. The three of them turned towards where the projectile had come from.

"I was told to bring the two smelling of death," the monster mused as he strode forward. He still looked human. "I doubt my master knows of the recent developments."

He smirked and drew himself up. "You will come quickly. Quietly. And if you do not, I will shoot one of the di Angelos."

The three looked at each other. Thalia tapped the side of her bow three times, seemingly thinking about it. Percy's blade dipped for a second. Jason nodded. "Okay," he said, sounding meek.

Thalia shelved her bow and Percy sheathed Riptide. Jason slipped his blades into their respective coverings. Percy nodded to Bianca in thanks. She nodded back, both their movements barely able to be seen.

The monster led the five Big Three kids outside, starting with the di Angelos behind him, and then Thalia, Jason, and Percy behind them. They trekked through the snowy forest until they came to a clearing. The monster pulled out a black box and spoke into it. Thalia realized that it was a walkie-talkie, and shuddered to think of why monsters were using mortal technology.

Percy looked at Thalia, barely suppressing a smirk. "May I?" he asked.

"No talking!" the monster said sharply.

"All yours," Thalia drawled, ignoring the monster. She and Jason backed up and grabbed the di Angelo siblings to give Percy the space he needed. They positioned themselves so that they could protect the siblings if needed.

Percy sprang forward, running on top of the soft, six-inch-deep snow, drawing Riptide again. The monster fired thorns wildly, trying to injure Percy, but he sliced through them all. He brought his sword down in a deadly arch and sliced through the monster like he was nothing but a mirage. He roared at the sky and started to grow.

He had the body of a lion with a scorpion's tail. The face was still the same—Percy guessed _that_ couldn't get any uglier—but now his mouth had all pointed teeth and fangs.

Percy appraised the situation. "Huh. A Manticore. We're surrounded by snow. There's a cliff twenty feet behind me. I _wonder_ what's going to happen."

The people that they spotted shoving their way through the crowds at the party suddenly appeared, armed and dangerous. The Manticore lunged for one of them—the one with the stringy brown hair—grabbed her in his claws, and escaped for the cliff, charging past Percy, who desperately tried to cleave the monster in half but only succeeded in creating a long, curved gash in the monster's side. Then he jumped off the cliff, the girl in his claws.

" _Clarisse_!" one of the others screamed. She had curly blonde hair and stormy grey eyes. She turned towards Percy. "You let it get away!" she screamed at him.

"I had it under control until you people showed up!" Percy yelled. "The Manticore knew it was outclassed, if you hadn't announced yourselves like that, the girl would still be here!"

"Outclassed by a shrimp like _you_?" she sneered.

"I suggest you do a headcount, Blondie. There's five faces here that you don't know. You have a satyr, a child of Hermes, and yourself," Percy retorted.

"Whoa, wait, time out," Bianca said, pointing at everyone like she was trying to connect the dots. "Who _are_ you people?!"

"An excellent question," the son of Hermes said. "Calm down, Annabeth. Clarisse is tough."

"She just _fell off a cliff_ , Luke!" the blonde girl—Annabeth yelled, although with not as much fury as she had with Percy.

"She's not in the sea," Percy said mildly. "Otherwise I would've gotten her out already. Some kind of magic transported them to somewhere else."

"Thank you, whoever you are," Luke said. "See? Clarisse can top me out sometimes. She'll be okay. Now, back to her question. Who are you?"

Thalia stepped forward. "I am Thalia, daughter of Zeus."

Jason raised his hand in an awkward wave. "I'm Jason, full-blooded brother of Thalia, son of Zeus."

"Percy Jackson," Percy introduced himself distractedly. "Son of Poseidon."

The satyr let out a bleating laugh. "Hey, Annabeth, you called him a shrimp when you didn't even know his parentage. Now _that's_ ironic," he said between guffaws.

Annabeth shot an amused look at the satyr. "Thank you, Grover."

"Thalia, could you and Jason shoot planes out of the air?" Percy asked suddenly.

She looked startled. "Yeah, if we wanted to, probably. Why?"

Percy pointed. "Because we've got two helicopters coming to pick up the not-anymore-prisoners."

As soon as he said that, everyone could hear the _thump, thump, thump_ of the helicopters' blades.

"Percy?" Thalia said nervously.

"Yeah?"

"Remember that dare Jason told you to do seven years ago?"

Percy smiled a bit. "You mean the one with the tornado?"

"Yeah."

"What about it?"

"Could you do it again?"

Percy paled. "You that it's _that_ dire?"

"Mortal machines, Percy. We can't summon lightning bolts out of a clear sky."

Percy swallowed. "I'd need Jason's help. You'd have to summon two lightning strikes."

"I've done four within two minutes of each other," Thalia scoffed.

Percy exhaled and readied his sword. Jason drew his _gladius_ and long knife, studied them both, and sheathed the knife. The two boys circled each other, striking at each other in a slow rhythm. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The cousins picked up their pace.

Clouds began to boil to life overhead, dark and foreboding. Lightning flashed between the clouds. Percy and Jason's swords crossed and locked with each other, their noses less than an inch apart, their eyes swirling with raw power. Their eyes locked, flashing electric blue on stormy sea green, and thunder rocked the world. The black clouds spread as far as the eye could see.

Light blinded everyone but Thalia and Jason as she called down lightning from the already supernatural storm. It struck hard and violently against the first of the helicopters, and with the horrendously loud creaking of metal, it tilted and splashed brutally against the surface of the sea.

"Hurry up, Thalia!" Percy yelled, his voice cracking with strain.

Another clap of thunder, and the heavens opened up. Freezing rain came crashing down by the buckets, soaking everyone but Percy instantly.

Thalia took a deep breath and yelled at the top of her lungs. The sound carried on forever in the pouring rain. It seemed like the world froze, and then everything went white as Thalia called down a bolt strong enough to rival her father's, splintering the remaining helicopter into fiery pieces, sending it crashing down into the sea, sending up a plume of steam.

The three of the children of the Big Three sank to the ground, exhausted.

The rain let up a little bit, but no one noticed. They were either unconscious or just standing there, staring in shock.

They remained that way, with the rain pouring down on them, for a long time.

* * *

 

Percy groaned and rolled over, groping the nightstand for his sword. Instead, he found a pen.

 _Ah, whatever. Close enough,_ his pounding mind decided.

"Dear gods," Percy muttered, propping himself up with one hand, the other going to his forehead.

"You have a very large reservoir of power," someone commented at the end of the bed. "Most children of Poseidon I have taught would've been out for the count for a minimum of two days while their power replenished itself."

Percy rolled out of his bed and fell with an ungraceful _thump_ on the floor. He staggered to his feet, his vision swimming. "Where's Thalia? Jason?"

"I doubt that you can see your own hand in front of your face right now, Percy," the man said gently. "They are safe."

"Then take me to them!" Percy demanded, blinking his eyes in an attempt to stop the world from spinning around him. "Where are we?! Who are you?! Are you even Greek?! Why does my head hurt so bad?! Why can't I see straight?! Are Thalia and Jason okay?!"

"You need sleep," the man said gently.

"Take me to them and I'll sleep," Percy snapped, swaying on his feet.

The man leaned over and put his hand on Percy's wrist as a warning, and then grabbed it lightly, so that Percy would have every opportunity to jerk away if he wished. Percy flinched at the physical contact, but the man guided him through several rooms and a hallway. His nose twitched; Percy smelled ozone.

"We're near," the man said, confirming Percy's thoughts.

Percy stayed silent and let the man guide him. The man slowed and then stopped. "This is Thalia's bed. There is another bed in the opposite direction that you're facing that is Jason's."

Swaying, dizzy, Percy walked over to Jason's bed slowly and felt his forehead. It was burning up. He walked around Jason's bed, to the other side, and started shakily pushing the two beds together.

Chiron watched in amazement as the unsteady, practically blind son of Poseidon shoved his cousin's beds together, probably with Herculean strength on his part, even though the beds were fairly light. Then he collapsed between the siblings, sleeping before his head hit the bed.

He sighed as he reached over and pried the pen from Percy's fingers. Don't want to accidentally have the cap come off and Percy's sword spring to full-form, now would they?

* * *

 

Thalia stirred, blinking her eyes open. She was lying on her side, curled around Percy's balled-up form protectively. Then she realized how much heat he was giving off.

"Oh my gods," she said, jerking upright and feeling his forehead. It was scorching. Thalia jerked her hand away and blew on it a little.

"He's okay," someone said. Her head jerked in that direction. There was a man sitting in a wheelchair, looking pensive. "Percy is okay. His body is just recovering from the severe drain on his powers. The fever will subside within twelve hours. Your own broke only three hours ago."

Thalia realized her clothes stank of dried sweat. "That kind of heat should kill someone!" she cried.

The man smiled wryly. "To be honest, I thought he would be out much longer than he was. He woke before either of you, bombarded me with questions, and demanded to be taken to you. He had a pounding headache, he was dangerously unsteady, and he was mostly blind because of his drained reservoir. And yet he managed to walk here, and push you and your brother's beds together and then promptly passed out between the two of you."

"Gods, Percy," Thalia groaned. "Don't you know when to stop?"

"No, he doesn't," someone else said at the doorway. The blonde girl from the clearing was there, looking irritated, swirling around an open water bottle with the cap in her other hand. "He kicked me when I tried to get some nectar down his throat."

"You were rather, er, _curt_ with him when you two did talk," Thalia pointed out dryly. "Personally, I can hardly blame him for kicking you."

"Ms. Thalia," Chiron said disapprovingly.

"I am twenty years old, mister, and I am a born and raised American. I have the right of speech," Thalia said sharply.

Annabeth was taking a swig of water from her bottle when Thalia said that. She choked and started coughing. When the coughing fit subsided, she wheezed out, "You're _twenty_?"

Thalia frowned at her. "Yeah, so?"

"Very few demigods make it to that age, let alone a child of the Big Three," Chiron explained.

"It was rough when Jason was small, but after a couple years it was fine," Thalia defended herself.

"How many monsters are you used to taking out?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

Thalia chewed on her lip, thinking about the question. "Before Percy, it was about half a dozen monsters a day. As Jason got older and Percy joined our group, that number has tripled."

Annabeth looked wary. "Is that on a good day or a bad day?"

Thalia shrugged. "That's about average, actually. It depends on where we are. In New England, normally about twenty to twenty-five monsters. In the Southeast, about ten. In the Midwest, about fifteen monsters a day. On the Western Coast, it ranges from thirty monsters to a small army. In Canada, there are actually a lot of monsters, especially Hyperboreans, but most of them are peaceful. However, if one challenges you, they are worth five of the normal monsters in the US, like the gryphons. Those are next to impossible to kill."

Annabeth and Chiron exchanged startled glances.

"What?" Thalia asked. "Is that a lot?"

Annabeth snorted incredulously. "'Is that a lot?' she asks. On an extremely bad day, I get, at _most_ , five monsters after me. Not _twenty_ -five."

Thalia chewed on her lip. She'd never considered that her number would be much higher than other demigods'.

"Where am I?" she finally asked.

"You're at Camp Half-Blood. We're still in New York. It's on Long Island," Chiron said.

Thalia groaned something to the effect of, 'another gods-damned camp'. Annabeth looked confused, while Chiron was alarmed. "I'm allowed to leave, right?" Thalia said clearer.

"This is the safest place that you can be," Chiron assured her.

"I am allowed to leave, _correct_?" Thalia said, stressing the words.

Chiron looked taken aback. "Not normally, no. Only people who are going home for the school year, or if they're going on quests."

Thalia swore violently and ran a hand through her hair, making it even more spiky than usual.

"Why do you ask?" Chiron said calmly.

With a frustrated sigh, Thalia said, "We have some extremely bad experiences with camps. One of which was in California. They tried to persuade me to join, but they would've separated me from Percy and Jason, who were seven and six at the time. I told them to go hide in the woods, and their leader tried to take me by force. I sheared off the plume of his helmet as a warning shot, before running after Jason and Percy. That was the first. We've never gone into California again—well, not purposefully. I doubt my brothers have forgotten that."

Thalia's stomach growled loudly. She sheepishly put a hand on her stomach.

"Annabeth, could you get Thalia some food?" Chiron asked, mirth tingeing his voice.

Annabeth left the room, and Chiron rolled forward. "Do not mention the Romans to anyone in this camp, Thalia."

"I'm not _stupid_ ," Thalia snapped. "Although I am living proof that Romans and Greeks are able to get along. So are Percy and Jason."

"How?" Chiron demanded quietly. "You said that you went out fighting."

"My _brother_ is a son of Jupiter," Thalia hissed. "Percy, Jason, and I are all quite aware of that."

"Of course you would get along, he was raised with Greek influence!" Chiron said.

Thalia shook her head. "Jason is still quite Roman. Unless we've done some heavy-duty battling recently, he's always up at the crack of dawn. His instincts are hardwired for Roman techniques, like stabbing forward instead of slashing downward, like I taught him. He learned how to fly at six. I wasn't even aware we could until he did it. And even though Percy and Jason clash a lot, it's more from the fact that their personalities are too similar rather than the Greek/Roman feud."

"What feud?" Annabeth said, coming into the room holding a plate and a glass of water.

"I was telling Chiron that I thought that your mother was influencing you and Poseidon Percy from yesterday or from whenever we first met. You know, the Athena and Poseidon feud," Thalia said swiftly.

Annabeth groaned. "I never even thought of that. He just rubbed me the wrong way. I normally have a better handle on my Athenian side."

"Thanks," Thalia said as Annabeth handed her the plate and the glass. "And I know Percy normally isn't that rude. Only when he's extremely tired and hasn't had food in a while. Then he gets pretty pushy." She chewed on her upper lip, lost in thought. "Then again, you accusing him of letting the girl and the monster fall off the cliff was probably a bad idea."

Annabeth's jaw tightened, but she didn't say anything. Thalia got up, still eating, and went around to check on her brother, lightly pressing a hand to his forehead. Jason wasn't as hot as Percy, but he was nowhere near normal. Thalia winced, feeling guilty that she couldn't have helped form the storm.

Jason stirred and weakly grabbed Thalia's hand. She set down her plate hurriedly and knelt next to him.

"Are the others okay?" he rasped, so quiet Thalia almost couldn't hear him.

"Percy's in the same state that you're in. Clarisse is still MIA, but everyone else is okay," Thalia said gently. "You did awesome, little brother."

Jason started coughing, horrible, guttural coughing. Thalia helped him sit up and she grabbed a bowl. Sure enough, as soon as Jason sat up, he vomited up muddy water.

Thalia shrugged helplessly. "At least it isn't green snot. I did that when I was sixteen."

Annabeth and Chiron seemed a little shocked.

Jason finally started dry-heaving, and Thalia shocked him to make his muscles relax. Jason hiccupped once and then sagged backwards, utterly exhausted. Thalia laid him back onto the bed.

"Where are we?" Jason asked softly.

"We're at a place called Camp Half-Blood. Apparently we're safe from monsters here."

Jason barked out a dry laugh. "Bullshit. We haven't been safe from monsters since I was two."

"No, little brother," Thalia said, mirth in her voice. "Since I was four."

Jason smiled wryly. "Sis?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is it so cold in here?"

Thalia smiled sadly. "It isn't cold, Jason. You're running a high fever from overdoing it."

Jason swallowed. "Oh."

"Do you want your jacket?" Thalia asked gently.

He nodded with difficulty. Thalia handed him his jacket—the very one she'd sacrificed for him, all those years ago—and helped him get it on. He sighed when he got it on, closing his eyes. Within thirty seconds, his breathing evened out and Thalia could tell that he was asleep.

Thalia slowly rose and grabbed her food again, scarfing it down quickly. When she finished, she asked bewilderedly, "Where's my spear? My bow and quiver? Where's Jason and Percy's weapons?"

Annabeth's eyes widened. Chiron looked amused. "Your little stint with the storm and lightning garnered several of the gods' attention. Zeus took it upon himself to reward you and your brother by helping you conceal your weapons. Not to be outdone, Poseidon also rewarded Percy with the same thing."

Chiron reached under a nightstand and pulled out a basket of seemingly random items: there was a mace canister, a pen, a coin, and some kind of pendant hanging from a leather cord. The man handed her the pendant and the mace canister, shrugging helplessly. "Annabeth tried to figure out how to turn these back into weapons. We believe these are yours, based on where they were."

Thalia warily grasped the two items, shoving the mace canister in her pocket and tying the pendant around her neck. On impulse, she tugged on the pendant absently, gasping a little as she felt no resistance but rather held her bow in her hand and a leather cord going diagonally across her chest. She twisted her head around in shock; she could feel the weight of her quiver, but she had to see it.

"One of the Hephaestus campers has something like that," Annabeth remarked, watching in interest. "Only it turns into a sword, not a bow and quiver. Let the bow drop, it'll probably turn back into a necklace."

Hesitantly, Thalia let her bow go, gravity taking hold of it. As soon as it left her hand, it vanished. Her hand flew to her neck, feeling the leather cord and the pendant.

"It only responds to you," Annabeth said, watching closely. "Huh. The maker was pretty smart."

"Don't inflate my dad's ego," Thalia warned, fiddling with the mace canister. "Out of the three of us, only one of us has a loving parent, and it definitely ain't me."

She yelped as she uncapped it and it grew into her spear.

"Most demigods don't get along with their parents," Annabeth said coolly.

"'Don't get along', as in, argue with them, or 'don't get along', as in, being abused by them?" Thalia asked distractedly, frowning at her spear.

Annabeth blinked in surprise.

"'Cuz trust me, girly, my mother only attracted Zeus because she was famous. She might've been nice to me, had she not known who Zeus was, but she did, and she pulled stupid stunts to get more famous, she got drunk, she beat me, treated me like a slave. I still have the scars on my back where she threw a beer bottle at me and it shattered against me," Thalia continued, testing the spear's weight apprehensively. "What did you do to this, Zeus? Anyway, why do you think I ran away with Jason? Technically, I should've waited until he could run without falling on his face, but had we been there any longer, she would've started to beat him, too. Or Jason would've been kidnapped by Hera, like she'd tried to do when I was asleep the first night that we ran away. I scared her to death by mentioning the prophecy and razing Olympus because she took my brother and I'd do anything to get him back. If she had, I would've, too, that's probably what scared the crap out of her."

Annabeth looked dumbfounded.

"All of us were abused," Thalia said gently, seeing Annabeth's face. "Or would've been, anyway. Jason wasn't, because I ran away, dragging him with me, for his protection. Percy's mother married a stinking drunk to cover up Percy's scent. It worked, too, until the monsters showed up and little six-year-old Percy ran all the way from Manhattan to New Jersey, somewhere in the South Mountain Reservation. A little under fifteen miles. A six-year-old kid with no endurance training. Gabe beat both Percy and Sally, the son of the sea and a woman with the patience of a saint who is kind enough to take us into her home when we need it. She's the mom I wish I had."

"She divorced this Gabe?" Chiron asked mildly.

Thalia nodded. "When we took Percy with us, we trained him to defend himself, and during that six months' time, Sally had gotten a divorce with Gabe. Gabe never saw Percy again." Thalia smirked at that last statement.

"A remarkable woman," Chiron mused.

Thalia began to pace in front of the boys' bed, unable to keep still.

* * *

 

The next eight hours consisted of Thalia alone with two sleeping, feverish boys, and Thalia alternately pacing and sitting on the bed beside one of the two boys. It was when she felt her brother's forehead for the sixteenth time (once every half hour) and felt that his temperature was normal, that Jason began to stir again, groaning. He sat up, rubbing his head.

"Gods, what _hit_ me?"

Thalia chuckled in relief. "You're feeling better?"

Jason blinked at her in disbelief. "Better compared to what? I feel like I just got hit with a Cyclops's club."

Thalia bit her lip. "You woke up eight hours ago, weaker than a newborn kitten, and when I help you sit up you barfed up muddy water and stomach acid, and according to you, you were freezing to death. To me, you were burning up from fever."

Jason shook his head slowly. "I don't remember any of that."

Thalia shrugged. "I don't blame you. I wouldn't want to remember that, either."

Her brother slid his legs out from underneath the covers. "What did I do to make me feel so _bad_?"

Thalia's heart sank. "You don't remember _any_ of the past three days? Not Nico and Bianca, or the Manticore, or you and Percy calling on the storm?"

"We're supposed to be on our way to Westover Hall, to collect Nico and Bianca," Jason said, confused.

Thalia groaned, and recounted what happened after that, what with the Manticore, the other demigods, and the helicopters.

Jason rubbed his head, thinking. His elbows were propped up on his knees, so he was slouching over when he rubbed his head.

"So where are we now? How long was I out?" Jason asked tiredly.

Thalia laughed bitterly. "We're at this place called Camp Half-Blood. Supposedly, it's a safe haven for demigods. I consider it a prison, since they apparently won't let us go unless we get assigned a quest—whatever that is—or if it's the end of summer. It's supposed to be a summer camp."

Jason made a face. "So they won't let us go until the end of summer? When does summer end?"

Thalia laughed delightedly as she realized something: "Its winter, Jason. I forgot because it's so warm here. We can leave whenever we want."

Jason smirked. Thalia resumed her pacing, stopping once to check Percy's forehead, whose fever was close to breaking.

"Oh," Thalia said, almost forgetting. She tossed Jason his coin. He caught it in surprise. "This is your _gladius_. Apparently we got the gods' attention with the storm and all the lightning. Zeus decided to reward us by concealing our weapons. Flip it; it changes into your sword. I have no idea what they did with your knife."

Jason pocketed the sword with a murmur of discontent.

"Don't worry, I wasn't too thrilled about it, either," Thalia said unhappily. She abided by the philosophy that if she won the magic item, awesome, if she won a weapon, awesome, but if the gods changed her weapons into magic items? That just defeated the purpose of flaunting trophies. Conquering weapons from monsters was like avenging the demigods that the monsters had defeated. Changing the weapons was like replacing them with a whole new weapon with no history, no previous owner. There was no pride or satisfaction, or the rush of adrenaline as you struggled to turn your enemy's weapon against itself. Nothing. Her bow—the one she crafted over a decade ago—might as well have been remade by foreign hands. And she hated it.

"We'll get plenty of chances to replace the weapons," Jason assured her, seeing her look of anguish. "Until then, we'll make do."

"I've always wanted to try out hunting knives, see how those work for me," Thalia mused. "Some of the werewolves have them."

"Let's get some silver before we go charging after them," Jason advised, his voice shaking with mirth.

"It'd be more satisfactory if we just fried them all," Thalia disagreed.

Jason shrugged, watching his sister pace. "Personally, I was happy with my _gladius_ , but I'd like to try a Greek sword, like Percy's."

Thalia uncapped Percy's pen experimentally. Nothing amazing happened. She slashed the pen like one would with a sword, and it expanded suddenly, like it was shot from the inside, or it needed the centrifugal force for it to expand. Thalia tossed the sword to Jason, who caught it by the hilt. Thalia adjusted her position into a battle stance, bare-handed. Jason eyed her warily.

"What are you doing?"

Thalia shrugged. "We can't wake up Percy, and this'll be more of a challenge for me. I've been basically doing nothing for the past eight hours; I want to take it out on someone."

Her brother grinned in appreciation and swiftly attacked.

Jason swiped low, towards Thalia's ankles, and she jumped over the blade. He changed direction, going straight up, and she bent sideways, lifting her arm so that it looked like she was stretching out her left side. Metal flashed, and Thalia danced out of the way of the blade, grinning. Jason slashed upwards, and she somehow managed to backflip out of the way and land silently on her feet. Jason retreated, his eyebrows raised.

Thalia laughed. "I didn't know I could do that!"

"Your powers probably helped you out," Jason guessed. "Like me with jumping."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "You're a freaking _kangaroo_ when you jump."

Jason snickered at her terminology, and started attacking again.

He jabbed at her abdomen in a very Roman maneuver, and it showed, because Thalia was very nearly skewered by the blade. He brought Riptide down in a diagonal line, and Thalia flipped upward, utilizing her new skill, and came down feet-first on top of the blade, slamming it out of Jason's hands. Thalia jumped up, grabbed the blade out from underneath herself, and held it at Jason's throat, smirking.

"You did good, little bro," she said proudly.

There was some slow clapping. The siblings looked up to see Chiron and Annabeth in the doorway, and Percy sitting up on the bed, blinking.

"You two are really interesting to listen to," he said, laughing a little. "All I get are these little snippets of conversation and whooshes from the blade."

Thalia laughed at Percy. "How long were you awake?"

Percy grimaced. "More like simply conscious. About half an hour. I think. It's hard to tell."

Thalia winced. "You remember anything?"

The son of the sea winced. "Pain. Wetness. I remember the Manticore a little bit. Then it feels like my soul was being sucked out of my body forcibly without me dying."

"That's you draining yourself to make that storm," Chiron explained.

Percy did a double take at Chiron and Annabeth. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Probably not," Chiron said smoothly, rolling farther into the room. "My name is Chiron."

"Like the teacher of the Heroes of Old," Percy said slowly.

Chiron smiled a little under his beard. "Yes, very much like that."

Thalia leaned over to Percy, "I think he _is_ Chiron, Percy. He never told us, and I frankly haven't a clue on how he's still alive, but even so…"

Percy's fingers flattened on his leg, signaling that he got it.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"We're at a place called Camp Half-Blood. Apparently, it's a safe haven for demigods. No monsters," Jason said, futilely attempting to keep the skepticism out of his voice.

Percy turned around to stare at Thalia. "He isn't serious? What about the _last_ Camp we ran into?"

"If they try to keep us here I'll shock the daylights out of them like I did last time," Thalia reassured him.

Chiron chuckled. Jason looked at him like he was nuts. "There is a counselor's meeting in twenty minutes. We'd like you to join us."

"Because you want to influence us into joining your Camp?" Thalia asked dryly.

"Not only that, but you also may have seen or heard something that Annabeth, Luke, and Grover did not," Chiron agreed.

Thalia looked taken aback. She had fully expected him to deny it. She looked at the boys. Jason's sword dipped. Percy tapped his fingers, seemingly thoughtfully. Tap. Tap-tap. Tap. Tap-tap. Tap. Tap-tap. _Tell only what we're asked of._

"We'll come," Thalia said resignedly.

* * *

 

Thalia could hear the demigods on the other side of the door talking noisily. She looked back at the two male demigods behind her.

"Let's get this over with," Percy said on her left.

"Might as well," Jason agreed.

Thalia pushed open the door, and the entire room fell silent. Thalia strode in, her eyes guarded and head held high. Jason and Percy followed her, their hands in their pockets, ready to take out their weapons at any time.

She recognized Annabeth, seated in one of the chairs. On Annabeth's right there was a girl who looked like a Persian princess. On Annabeth's left, there was a girl with dark-brown hair and grass-green eyes. On the other side of the Persian princess there was a beautiful girl with long, raven black hair and bright blue eyes. At the end of that row there was a blond-haired boy with purpley-blue eyes.

Thalia seated herself at the head of the ping-pong table, Jason and Percy on her right and left. It was a pattern they had always fallen into: Thalia in front, Jason behind her on Thalia's right, Percy also behind her but on Thalia's left. All three of them knew that the configuration would most likely change soon, so they decided to savor it while it lasted.

"Right," Chiron said. "Demigods, this is Thalia, Jason, and Percy, all of them children of the Big Three."

Instant. Pandemonium.

Thalia watched the yells of shock and people leaping to their feet and protesting with a little bit of amusement. Jason and Percy's expressions didn't really change all that much. Maybe they were just a little bit in shock.

Thalia brought up her hands and slammed them together with the sound of a crack of thunder. The effect was immediate, as the group of demigods fell into silence.

The green-eyed girl next to Annabeth spoke up first. "Thalia looks old enough to be the person in the prophecy that no one but Annabeth has heard. War doesn't seem to be immediately looming. What's going on?"

Chiron opened his mouth, but Thalia beat him to it. "A valid question, but apparently not one for me, as I am twenty. In my limited experience, prophecies are never wrong, it is just a simple matter of when it happens and how it plays out. The prophecy could apply to four other known people, all of whom are at this Camp."

Mutters broke out.

"The newbies that arrived here yesterday or whenever we arrived here are called Bianca and Nico di Angelo, and they are children of Hades," Thalia calmly spoke over the quiet noise.

Gasps and more mutters.

"How did you know that?" Annabeth asked, a little bit shocked. "We only knew that they were strong."

"I was charged with a quest from Hades to retrieve his children, train them, and keep them generally safe," Percy said flatly. "Unlike you and I, many people are unfair against children of Hades, believing them to be dark and unfriendly and most often times, crazy. Hades wanted the three of us to keep them away from that."

"He has a point," Sherman—the son of Ares filling in for Clarisse—grudgingly admitted. "I could never believe that Nico kid is a son of Hades. He's too annoying."

Thalia cracked a grin. "Sounds about right for a ten-year-old child of the Big Three."

"I wasn't that bad!" Percy protested.

"Oh, yes you were," Thalia promised. "I was about ready to wring your neck by the time August came around again. You asked _way_ too many questions. Questions that were absolutely _pointless_ , I might add."

"'How do I hold a sword' is not a pointless question," Percy exclaimed.

"That was when you were six, when you were ten you were trying not to shoot yourself in the eye with my bow and arrows," Thalia said dryly. "Artemis herself couldn't teach you how to shoot."

Out of the corner of her eye, Thalia could see Annabeth bury her head in her hands, shoulders shaking from silent laughter.

"How long have you three been together?" the purpley-eyed boy asked curiously.

"Six years," they answered simultaneously. "A decade if it was just Jason and me," Thalia added.

"He hardly looks twelve!" Luke exclaimed.

Jason rolled his eyes. "That's because I _am_. I turned twelve in July."

"You're right," Thalia agreed. "I was ten and Jason was two."

Luke and Annabeth exchanged startled glances across the room. "We had three teenagers and a seven-year-old in our midst, and we could hardly survive. How did you do it?" Luke said slowly.

"I carried him for a year and a half," Thalia said dryly. "By the time Jason was seven he already knew how to use a short sword, a spear, and bow and arrows if he had to. And we helped train Percy, who we'd had for a year and a half by then."

Sherman eyed Jason, looking a bit impressed. Then he looked at Thalia, wondering if she was the one who trained her brother.

"But I digress. Weren't we supposed to be talking about Westover Hall?" Thalia continued.

"Which is undergoing repairs," someone muttered. Thalia couldn't tell who.

"That may be so, but would you rather have had the demigods in that clearing slaughtered or would you rather a building having to do repairs?" Thalia snapped. "From what I can gather, you sent some of your most experienced demigods to Westover Hall: Luke, Clarisse, and Annabeth, and then you had five Big Three kids in that clearing. Unlike you, we were actually charged with a mission to get the di Angelo kids to safety. If it had gone worse than it already had, ending with the slaughter of eight or nine demigods, Hades automatically would've come down on _your_ heads. Trust me, we've been hunted by Hades. He makes being a Big Three kid look like a piece of cake."

Percy grimaced and rubbed his left thigh in remembrance.

"Despite popular opinion, we're not bulletproof," Jason muttered. "Although that'd make life a lot easier."

Dead silence as people realized the severity of the situation.

"You said war isn't looming in the horizon," Percy said suddenly, looking at the girl with green eyes next to Annabeth. "Before we went into the entryway, the Manticore was raving about some great stir pot or something like that. He had a master that was intent on raising the ancient monsters from the Pit. I don't think you heard it, Thalia, because I was in front of you. War may not be coming, but hard times are."

"No, war is coming," Annabeth spoke up. "I don't think you're aware of recent events. A guy named Ethan Naukamura is sailing around on a cruise ship. Luke nearly got killed twice on that ship."

Thalia raised her eyebrows. "And? I don't understand. Is this guy a demigod? Is he in cahoots with monsters?"

Annabeth frowned. "Yes, he's a demigod. Not monster, per se, but a more apt description is your grandfather."

Thalia visibly paled. "Godly or mortal side?" she asked, while thinking, _oh gods, please let it be my mortal side…_

"Godly," Annabeth said, looking apologetic.

Thalia groaned and buried her head in her hands. "How fast is he reforming?" she asked, muffled.

"Very fast."

"Have any others escaped their prisons?"

"Not that we know of," she answered swiftly.

"How much time do we have?"

"Uncertain."

"Crap," Thalia swore, rubbing her head. "Does anybody else have a majorly important problem?" she asked sarcastically. "Maybe the Python is rising, coming to guard the Oracle again. Or no, better yet, some ancient sea monsters are stirring!"

Percy nudged her. "That's already happening. Father is sealing their prisons more tightly."

"Clarisse is MIA," Sherman remarked, ignoring Thalia's sarcasm.

"I'm still working on how to fix that problem," Thalia admitted. "And Percy, you didn't tell me that, or I wouldn't have mentioned it."

"I believe milady is lost," the Persian princess said somberly.

Thalia blinked in surprise. "I'm sorry, I just came here. Who are you?"

She nodded. "My name is Zoë Nightshade, Huntress of Artemis."

"Lost?" Percy asked. "As in needing directions?"

"As in, MIA," Thalia explained quickly before Zoë could open her mouth with a biting retort. "Kidnapped. Disappeared. Vanished off of the face of the earth."

"She told us to come hither—to thy camp," Zoë continued. "She said that her mission was too dangerous for her sisters."

"What was she hunting?" Thalia asked urgently.

Zoë pursed her lips. "The bane of the gods."

Thalia arched an eyebrow. "So she, one of the gods, went after this creature, without backup, without others knowing where she was? I mean no disrespect towards your mistress, but that is foolish for what she is hunting."

Zoë frowned at Thalia. "If you had been any other, I most likely would've fired," she admitted. "However, I said as much to milady as well. And now she is gone."

Thalia leaned forward. "How did you find out?"

Zoë blinked. "By your what-you-call demigod dreams. She is in shackles."

Thalia's jaw clenched, and she got up and began to pace, running a hand through her hair. "Where is she? Could you tell?"

Zoë's already dark eyes darkened further as she thought. "It was a dark mountain top. The mountain seemed to be carved into horrible figures, formed of black rock." She shuddered. "It fairly reeked of evil."

Percy's eyes widened. "Was it in partial ruins filled with mist?"

Thalia's eyes shot to the son of Poseidon, surprised. Then she frowned, her eyebrows scrunching and pursing her lips.

"Yes," Zoë said warily.

"I know where she is," Percy said with finality. "Mount Tam, aka, Mount Othyrus, found in California."

Jason leaned over Thalia's empty seat to whisper, "Was that...?"

"Wayward journey," he whispered back.

" _Eh_...yeah. Crap."

Their conversation was lost in the murmuring of the other demigods.

"Wait a second. How on earth can we trust them?" a voice spoke over all of them. A son of Apollo eyed them suspiciously. "Let's do a recount here: five demigods show up in one day—that in and of itself is unusual—and then they all turn out to be _Big Three kids_? One of them shouldn't be alive, frankly, and one of them could start the prophecy that the gods themselves are afraid of launching. Have we covered all that? Good. What about Clarisse disappearing, Artemis being captured, Ethan on the loose in his horrid cruise ship, and now this news about some new master intent on stirring the most ancient monsters from their depths? If _that_ doesn't sound like the start of a war, I don't know what does."

Percy shrugged, unperturbed. "He has a point. They have no reason to trust us."

"Percy!"

"What? It's true! The only thing that we've brought to them is trouble!"

Thalia threw up her hands. "You think I haven't already realized that!

"I just said that, you know, to other demigods, we only bring trouble and monsters! You were the one who said that that was the reason for even letting me into this group, because I probably would've caused absolute chaos if Mom put me in Camp!" Percy defended. "You were the one who said that Camp would just treat me like some gods-forsaken savior! Instead, you didn't tell me, but I got it! You would treat me like family. And you have. And I hope to any just, higher power out there that I returned the favor, because frankly, you didn't _have_ to take in a six-year-old kid with no idea how to hold a sword or summon a bit of water."

"Percy—"

" _Shut up,_ Thalia," Percy raged. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were allergic to compliments!"

Someone burst into laughter. The two cousins glared at each other, not noticing the laughter.

Thalia gave up and walked out without a word, leaving the stifling rec room behind.

* * *

 

People were laughing and cheering and wincing in the arena when Thalia walked in. She took herself a seat—of which almost all were filled—and asked the person next to her, "What's going on?"

The stranger took a short look at her. "Newbie?" he asked.

Thalia nodded.

He smiled. "Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes. Be warned, my brothers like to pickpocket anything of value on you."

"I am warned," Thalia said, smiling a little. "Thalia. I came in a couple days ago."

Chris did a double take at her face. "You were one of the unconscious kids!"

Thalia grimaced. "Great, I have a reputation."

"Do you know if my girlfriend is okay?" Chris asked.

"If you count tired, subdued, and shackled _okay_. She has a few scratches, but nothing seems too wrong with the daughter of Ares," Thalia said lowly.

Chris sagged in relief. He pointed at the empty spot in the middle. "In there, is the most skilled person in the camp that has the guts to get up there. It ranges from the children of Ares to the children of Athena, with a few others thrown in. They fight any who challenge them, and if they win, they stay in. If they lose, the challenger stays in the arena until he or she loses. If Annabeth and Clarisse were here, it would normally end in a draw or an extremely close match. If they get tired of fighting, they can forfeit their position to the most skilled person they matched, assuming that they're conscious."

Thalia made a queer face. "It almost sounds like gladiator fighting."

"There are rules, and it's completely voluntary," Chris assured her. "No maiming and no killing, and the losers are not allowed to stab their defeater in the back."

Thalia didn't know if he was kidding or not. "What's your weapon?"

Chris patted his sheath. "Sword. I'm nothing special with it, but I've survived with my skills. You?"

"I normally prefer my spear," Thalia admitted. "Although I'm a good shot as well. Who's up there?"

Chris shrugged. "Marcus, son of Ares. He has an ego as big as the great outdoors, although he's fourth only to Annabeth, Clarisse, and Luke when it comes to weapons fighting. He's been taken down before by others, but they had to pull some extreme stuff."

"I've been on my own with two boys to take care of for a little over a decade," Thalia said with mirth filling her voice. "I'll give you ten bucks if I can't beat him."

"You don't _have_ ten bucks," Chris said, raising an eyebrow as a challenge.

Thalia brushed it off. "I guess that means that I'll win."

The previous contestant was being helped off the immediate battlefield.

" _Who else would like to challenge me?!_ " someone yelled in the center. There were some laughs at his drama, but it felt like the arena was holding its breath.

Chris smirked at Thalia. "I'll take that bet, Thalia."

"May I borrow your sword?" Thalia asked. He smirked and unsheathed the weapon and handed it to her, hilt first. Thalia grinned mischievously at him, and as she stood up, her face changed. Instead of being light and playful, it was a stern expression with a hint of pride and challenge. "I will challenge you, Marcus, son of Ares."

Now that she could see the guy, she could tell that this would be a short fight. He was all brawn and no brains. Maybe he had skills and instincts, but wouldn't be able to judge how fast she was going or how hard she was going to hit, let alone be able to see which way her muscles were tensing to be able to calculate where she was going.

Marcus laughed outright as he saw how short she was. By demigod standards, she was miniscule. Most of the girls were five-seven at shortest, and she was five-four. She blinked calmly, accepting that laughter as another challenge. She swiftly moved to the center of the arena, aware, but not daunted, by the many people watching her every step. She weighed the sword in her hand curiously. It was a comfortable weight, but unbalanced slightly, and it was smoothed out, yes, but not by her own hands.

She faced Marcus, the sword in her hand hanging loosely, waiting for him to strike first.

He did. Marcus went for a powerful overhead arc that Thalia neatly sidestepped. Metal rang against stone as the sword clanged off of the hard surface. He sliced towards her legs, and she hopped over the sword as if she were jumping rope. Marcus slashed diagonally towards her, and only then did she lift her sword with her right hand, catching the blade between the base of her blade and her hilt.

"Don't go easy on me," Thalia said dryly. "I came looking for a fight, and I got a high recommendation."

Then she kicked his feet out from under him to emphasize her point. She waited for him to get up patiently. He lay at her feet, stunned.

Faster than she thought was possible for a boy of his size, he lurched upwards, clenching his sword and made as though to slice her in half like that nursery tale of the witch and the woodcutter. She met his strike with Chris's sword, both hands wrapped around the hilt.

"Much better," she muttered. "Now I know how far I can go."

She promptly kicked him solidly in the chest, showing off as she used her momentum from the reaction to go into a backflip and landed on her feet, skidding to a stop in the dusty stone floor. Thalia brought up her sword to deflect an overhead cleave, altered the direction by a minute amount, and sliced off a fringe of hair. She twirled around him gracefully, slashing at his leather armor straps, freeing him of the weight.

"You move too slowly with that armor on," she informed him. "C'mon! I thought you were good!"

They circled each other, Marcus now infinitely more wary of Thalia. "Where did you train?"

She shrugged. "Oddly enough, I stole moves from monsters who had stolen them from defeated demigods. I've been on my own for ten years, had to learn how to defend myself somehow."

"Ten years," he repeated grimly. "Damn."

Thalia laughed at him.

"It can't hurt to try, no?" he asked.

Thalia shrugged. "It depends on how frustrated I am with the world. Right now I'm _very_ frustrated, so it really sucks for you."

She dropped Chris's sword altogether and stepped inside Marcus's strike, mercilessly slamming the heel of her palm into his solar plexus. He tried to strike at her with the sword, amongst some gasps and screams, and she jumped up in the narrow space and pushed her feet into his solid chest, propelling herself over and away from the strike. She landed on her back that was curved as she was curled up in a ball and somersaulted backwards, ending the two-second process in a Spiderman-like position, Marcus sprawled and gasping, laughing a little. She gave him a questioning look, and he gave her a thumbs up while trying to catch his breath.

She walked back to Chris and handed him his sword, hilt first. "Here's your sword. I expect my ten bucks by tomorrow morning."

His face was priceless. Thalia heard that insufferable _click_ behind her. "Percy, put _up_ the camera already, gods!"

"I'm sorry, his face was too good to resist," Percy said sheepishly.

Chris took his sword after a long moment, and sheathed it. "I gave you your weapon back, now give me mine," she added calmly, holding out her hand.

He sighed. "But really? Pepper spray?" Chris tossed her the mace canister.

She caught it deftly and uncapped it. It transformed into her old spear. She held it out for Chris to inspect. "My spear that I told you about," she said, smirking. "Not pepper spray."

It collapsed into its container and Thalia capped it. "What did they decide?"

"As far as I know, they're still arguing," Percy said wryly. "I gave up after another ten minutes in there. Jason's wandering around the woods, I think. He might be dive-bombing some of the Hermes kids, though."

Thalia grinned at him appreciatively.

"THERE'S A BLOND BIRD ATTACKING ME!" someone screamed outside of the arena.

Percy burst into laughter. "Yeah, he's definitely dive-bombing the Hermes kids."

Thalia shook her head, exasperated with the pair of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally written in 2013. I love how half the things that I say sarcastically eventually come true. For example, I made a prediction (sarcastically, and through Thalia in this chapter) that the Python would rise to guard the Oracle. In 2016, Rick Riordan released a new series SPOILER surrounding Apollo and his ancient enemy, the Python, who did indeed rise again to guard the Oracle. *shakes head*


	4. Hal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The quest takes off on a _really_ rough start.

Thalia gaped at all the armor that they had to wear. "Do we _really_ need all this?" she asked disbelievingly to Chris.

Chris bit his lip thoughtfully, studying Thalia. "You actually might not need it, unless someone put you with a group, and they are going to send that group out as a distraction team. Then it's better to be safe than sorry."

"I don't know how to fight with this on," Thalia said flatly. "And if things get desperate I can erect my own kind of armor."

Chris shrugged. "It's your limbs."

"I thought you said that there were rules!"

"Accidents happen," Chris said flatly. "Besides, you should feel lucky that you even got to play this game. The Big Three kids were almost excluded because you tip the balance in our favor."

"And watch us lose this game anyway because I haven't got a clue how to play it," Thalia grumbled.

Chris laughed. "Somehow, I highly doubt it. Where do you think Percy will be?"

Thalia gave him an incredulous look. "I'm sorry, Chris, have you noticed that he's a son of the sea? That he can control water, maybe? If Annabeth's at all smart, she put him as the border patrol."

Chris held up his hands. "Hey, I'm still just trying to get my head wrapped around the fact that you've survived long enough to be twenty, and you're a Big Three kid, and you've been without the safety of the Camp for all of your life. Sorry if I'm a little slow when it comes to obvious stuff."

"Nah," someone else said teasingly.

"He's like that all the time," his partner assured her.

The two that had cut into their conversation were boys that were almost identical, except one was a little taller than the other. They both wore the traditional Hermes mischievous smirk with a raised eyebrow. She held out her hand patiently. "My ten dollars and my mace canister."

The two boys looked at each other, wide-eyed. "We didn't—"

"—steal anything!"

Thalia pulled on her pendant around her neck and nocked two arrows. "Let's try this again. My ten dollars and my mace canister."

They both reluctantly shoved the items back to her. Thalia unstrung her bow and let it drop, collecting her things. "Thank you," she said politely. "I am Thalia, daughter of Zeus."

"Travis—"

"—and Conner—"

"Stoll! Sons of Hermes."

"But you probably already figured that out," Chris said dryly. "These two are more commonly referred to as the Stolls."

Thalia chuckled. "Stoll. An ironic name for sons of Mer—Hermes." _Damnit, Thalia, you've been hanging out with Jason too much,_ Thalia internally berated herself.

They looked at her blankly.

Thalia groaned. "Oh, come _on_. Your last name, Stoll? And then the word, _stole_. As in, the past-tense of steal."

Chris leaned over to her. "It's a common joke among newbies and some of the other cabins, but it's such an old one to the Hermes cabin that it isn't funny any more."

"Oh," Thalia said, shrugging sheepishly. "Sorry."

"So are you wearing the armor or not?" Chris asked.

Thalia shook her head. "I have no idea how to move around in those, and frankly I doubt that I could run."

"At least get a shield," Chris said disapprovingly.

"I could snowboard on those just fine, but I don't think I can lift one for a long period…"

Thalia stared at the snow around her.

Chris looked a little alarmed. "Thalia?"

She grinned at him. "They'll never see it coming."

He gulped. "I don't like that look."

* * *

 

"Remember, they're counting on a small fleet of enemies coming at them," Thalia said. "They're getting seven, high-velocity enemies that are going to plow into their shields and break them apart. Then the rest of us charge down there and take them to prison. Then that group is going to split up and—" she snapped her fingers, " _vanish_. Got it?"

"That's a crazy plan," Chris said wryly.

"Don't worry, I've got another one for getting past Percy," Thalia assured him. She hefted one of her shields onto her arm and readied herself for jumping onto the other shield. "Remember, try to keep in a wedge formation as much as possible. Ready?"

The group of seven that consisted of Thalia, Marcus, Chris, Bianca, Silena, and the Stolls all nodded.

Thalia tensed. "Go!"

She jumped onto her snowboard-slash-shield and pushed off. She skidded down the slope at demigod-smashing speed. She readied the shield on her arm, bracing herself, while balancing on the shield under her. The people she was aiming for just stood there, stunned, as she and six others hurtled down the hill.

She rammed into the line, knocking two of them down and sending the rest of them stumbling from the force of the impact. Six more thuds happened in quick succession, and more people fell over. Thalia drew her spear, twirled it, gaining momentum, and smacked the butt of the spear against someone's helmet. They sank back into the snow, out cold.

Thalia looked up. All of them were subdued and sporting bruises. "Get them to the prison. Tell the others that we got by the first barrier."

They scattered into the forest, hauling their prisoners with them. Wind whirled over the spot, leaving no trace of any battle, and Thalia trooped towards the creek, a lone set of footprints in the snow.

When she got there, she had to do a double take. There was a solid block of ice three times as high as she was and spanning farther than she could see. The others had already arrived. She could just barely see Percy through the ice. He grinned cheekily at her and waved.

"Jason," she called. "He's on the other side. Distract him, please."

Jason grinned and took a running start, leaping off the ground ten feet away from the huge block of ice. He slammed into it, but he grabbed ahold of the top ledge, and pulled himself up, running across the top. Thalia could see him jump down and land just in front of Percy.

Beckendorf inspected the block of ice curiously. Then he drew a hammer—a hammer nearly identical to the one that Thalia had confiscated from a monster a decade ago—and slammed it against the ice. Spiderwebs of cracks crawled along the ice. Beckendorf brought his hammer down on the same spot with more force. Ice chips flew, and the cracks expanded and went further, crawling deeper into the ice. Bianca wedged her knife into one of the cracks and pulled downwards, lifting her feet off the ground. All of a sudden it burst into flame, melting the ice instantly, and Bianca fell to the ground unexpectedly.

"What the crap?!" Chris said, bewildered, running over to Bianca.

"Big Three kid," Thalia said dryly. "Weird things tend to happen around us. May I see your hammer, Beckendorf?"

He warily handed it to her. "I'd recommend that you get Bianca a bit farther away from the block of ice, Chris."

Bianca stumbled to her feet and backed away on her own, Chris following her.

Thalia weighed the hammer in her hand, and the brought it down in a crushing overhead blow, lightning crackling through it. It hit the ice with a deafening _clang_ , and then all of a sudden they could hear the lightning tearing through the ice with ruthless force. Thalia handed Beckendorf his hammer.

With an amused smile, he simply poked the mutilated ice block in front of him, and it all came crashing down, exposing the duel between Percy and Jason.

Everyone that wasn't guarding the flag charged through the hole in the enemy's defense. Jason and Percy continued to duke it out, although Percy tried to break away once to fix the barrier.

"So was that really your plan to distract Percy?" Chris panted.

"Some of it was used," Thalia told him. "Jason went over the ice to distract Percy so that Beckendorf's hammer didn't just clang off of it harmlessly."

"Is that even possible?" Chris asked.

Thalia looked at him. "With Percy's ice? Yes."

* * *

 

Percy yelled with frustration that he was matched strike for strike by Jason, neither of which were gaining ground nor tiring. He wouldn't normally care, enjoying the exercise, but now he had people counting on him to keep the barrier safe.

He heard a yell and turned towards it, ducking under Jason's sword. Thalia and Jason's team came charging over the hill, the Red Team's flag in hand. The Red Team themselves followed them, trying to get back their flag, but Thalia hopped onto her shield and snowboarded down the hill at high speed, the flag fluttering. The shield hit the half-melted water of the creek, skipped like a heavy stone once, and catapulted Thalia into the air where she landed with an ungraceful _poof_ into the snow on safe ground.

Jason twirled his _gladius_ and it shrank into the gold coin.

Annabeth, her stormy grey eyes visible even under her helmet, marched up to Percy and smacked him with an armored hand. "You said they wouldn't get by you! That you didn't _need help_!"

Percy's eyes flashed. "Well I'm _sor-ree_ that I didn't know that lightning could crack solid ice into bits the size of my thumbnail! If you couldn't tell, I was facing off with Jason, Thalia was taking down my barrier, and somehow Bianca blasted through half of it! Give me a _break_!"

"You're such a _Seaweed Brain_!" Annabeth screamed at him. "You _knew_ the odds!"

"Well sorry, I'm not a know-it-all!" Percy shot back. "Unlike you, I've dueled with Thalia and Jason, and I expected Nico and Bianca to have no clue how to use their powers, like I was when I first found out! I thought I could handle it! Not all of us are such…such _Wise Girls_!"

"That's not even an insult!"

"It is if you don't value the so-called _wisdom_ coming from the person's mouth!"

Jason facepalmed.

"Are you calling me stupid?!"

"Yes, _Wise Girl_ , I am," Percy snapped. "You fail to notice that I went by the information that I gathered and made my move based on that information. Apparently, I'm at least partly human, _because I made a mistake_! So shut the Hades up already!"

"You've traveled with them for what, six years?! You should know what Thalia is capable of!" Annabeth yelled in his face.

"If we full-out battled between us, not only would we destroy the surrounding area, but also kill each other!" Percy screamed at her.

"You would've seen what she did against the monsters!"

"No monster has lasted longer than ten seconds against Thalia in the past six years! How on _earth_ am I supposed to notice what she does when I'm occupied with my own monsters?!"

Thalia sighed and dragged a hand down her face, resisting the urge to cover up her ears to block out the pointless argument.

"It's not my fault that you're unobservant!" Annabeth yelled defensively.

"'You're unobservant,' said the pot to the kettle," Percy narrated snarkily.

"I am too observant!"

"Then explain to me why Bianca's knife erupted into flames! Explain to me why Beckendorf's hammer blasted through every one of my defenses! Explain to me why you and I rub each other the wrong way! Explain to me _why we're even having this POINTLESS ARGUMENT_?!"

Percy was finally pushed to the limit as the half-melted creek began to swirl with dangerous intent, doubling in on itself, rising higher and higher until it formed the approximation of an icy waterspout.

"Percy!" Thalia pleaded, trying to prevent him from doing something he regretted to the daughter of Athena.

Movement caught his attention, and the entire world froze. The creek splashed back into its bed.

Annabeth turned around, startled and slightly intimidated. She'd been fairly sure that Percy had been ready to smash her to a pulp. Now what was going on?

A girl walked into the clearing full of demigods, shrouded in green mist, moving oddly jerkily. She walked directly up to Percy, who gasped when he realized that he wasn't looking at a little girl about Nico's age, he was looking at her corpse. She was a hollowed mummy, devoid of all water except the moisture collected from walking through the snow.

She opened her mouth, and her voice sounded like that snake off of the first Harry Potter movie:

 _Many to go west to free the goddess in chains_  
She who holds power, her power be waned  
The scourge of Olympus will lead you to the trail  
Campers, strangers, and Hunters combined prevail  
The Titan's Curse must one withstand  
And five to venture into no man's land

And she slumped down on the boulder like she intended to sit there for another hundred years.

Percy's face was as white as the snow that surrounded him. He knelt in the snow to steady himself and to prevent himself from falling over.

Thalia ran over to Percy, kneeling next to him, her own hands shaking. "Gods, Percy. You get yourself into the strangest situations."

"Don't I know it," Percy responded. "Gods, I hated that."

Knowing what he was referring to when he said _that_ , Thalia chuckled.

* * *

 

After an extremely long counselor's meeting of deciding who to take on the quest, Thalia, Jason, and Percy were shown to their cabins, while Chiron debated on where to let the di Angelo children sleep.

(Percy snuck them with him when he went to his cabin.)

About an hour after they were sent to their cabins, Percy sneaked into the Zeus cabin to check up on his cousins, who, he found, were settling down in marble alcoves. The jumped and grabbed their weapons when the door creaked open.

"I've got actual beds and a bathroom," Percy told them dryly.

"We aren't allowed in each other's cabins," Jason pointed out.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Since when have rules stopped us? Heck, our very life is breaking an oath. Besides, I've already got the di Angelo siblings bunking with me."

Jason shrugged and picked up his stuff, Thalia following shortly thereafter.

Percy led the way back to the cabins, sneaking past the patrol of harpies fluttering clumsily by, his cousins immediately behind him. He opened the Poseidon cabin's door silently and nearly got torched.

"What the _crap_ , Bianca?!" Percy whisper-yelled, patting out his smoking hair.

"Percy! Gods!" she said, sounding relieved. "You looked creepy."

Thalia and Jason came up behind Percy.

"Eh…now you look like you have three heads."

"Nico!"

"Well, doesn't he? I mean, come on, he can do loads of other cool stuff, why not have three heads as well?"

Thalia mouthed to Percy, _Exactly like you._

Percy looked insulted. Jason snickered.

He shut the door behind Thalia and Jason swiftly and silently as possible. Fire flickered into existence. Thalia yelped.

"Relax," Bianca said, her voice sounding strained. "I'm practicing."

"Yeah, practicing on scaring the crap out of me," Thalia muttered.

"I'm the one with the highest record of scaring the crap out of her," Jason informed them.

"Yes, because you've been with her the longest," Percy argued. "I've almost topped you."

"You aren't even close to me," Jason said smugly.

"I am too!" Percy said indignantly. "Your score is one hundred and ninety-two, mine is one hundred and seventy-four."

"And that is three hundred and sixty-six times more than I needed to be terrified on your behalves," Thalia interjected dryly, setting her stuff down on a lower bunk and then sitting on the bed. Jason jumped onto the one above her and sat with his legs crossed, peering at Bianca, who was watching the flames intensely.

"That'll be useful, if we ever have to travel in a dark area, and it doesn't drain you too much," Jason commented.

"It doesn't drain me all that much," Bianca admitted. "It just takes a lot of concentration, which is just as tiring."

Jason held up two fingers, adding to the light with his own blue-white light from the lightning crackling between his fingers, grinning.

Thalia looked up. "You've been able to do that since you were two."

Jason looked at her dryly. "I probably had a good teacher."

Thalia smiled dryly at the compliment and held up her own two fingers, also crackling with electricity. With a boom the equivalent of someone dropping a textbook onto the floor, the cabin lit up as lightning passed between the two siblings.

There was silence as the three cousins created their own source of light in the dark cabin.

"I like this cabin," Jason finally said. "You don't have a creepy buff hippie staring at you."

The rest of them burst into laughter, and Jason smiled. "No, seriously. That statue of Greek Dad is like, _respect me or eat voltage_ , even though it's just a statue."

"Wait, what?" Nico asked, bewildered. "What do you mean, 'Greek Dad'?"

Thalia looked at the windows, which were sealed shut, and then told the two children of Hades about the Civil War, about Hera, about Jason, and about the other demigods in California.

Bianca's flame flickered to nearly nothing, just a blue wisp of heat, from her shock. "So this information could start another war? Why are you telling us?!"

"Because," Percy said before Thalia could open her mouth. "You're daughter and son of Hades."

"Hades is one of the Big Three," Jason said. "And there's so few of Big Three kids anymore."

Thalia made a noise of agreement with her brother. "And there's the fact that, for some reason, Hades kids get into all sorts of things. Apparently they're just as bad, or worse, than Percy, here."

"Hey!"

"Well, it's _true_ ," Thalia protested. "But seriously, I'm hoping that you two will help us three out. We don't really want to stay here, since it severely restricts on what we can do, and with the amount of trouble newcomers are bound to get in, we'll have no trouble staying up with the mythology media. I don't support the Camps, per se, but I'm fairly sure that none of us like this Ethan guy and what he's doing to Kronos."

Nico blinked. "What's he doing to Kronos? Shouldn't we be _thanking_ him if he's, I don't know, chopping him up into smaller pieces?"

"No," Thalia said flatly. "He's raising Kronos and fitting each piece together."

Bianca shuddered. "That's morbid."

"Tell me about it," Thalia agreed. "And, call me protective, but also so that you can at least have one parent that cares for you. Percy's mother treats all of this group like her own children. Even me, and I'm older than the second oldest by seven years. Most of the demigods, from what I can gather, don't have a good home life, or their parents don't even know that they are demigods. But Percy's mother has the patience of a saint and she'll take just about anyone who asked her, directly or indirectly."

"Thus is the praise of Sally Jackson," Percy said solemnly.

Thalia shocked him. "Oh, shut up, you!"

Percy doused her in tap water, irritated, his hair sticking straight up all over his head like an inky porcupine. Bianca hid her laugh behind her head, but Nico had no such qualms. Suddenly she was very glad that she'd hidden her laugh, as Nico got soaked as well.

"Hey!" Nico complained.

"Hay is for horses, and we don't have any," Percy snapped, running a hand through his spiky hair in an effort to get it to calm down.

Bianca's flame flickered and nearly went out because she was laughing so hard.

"I can tell who exactly will be the voice of reason in the coming months," Thalia said dryly. "And it isn't Percy."

"We actually do have horses, Percy," Bianca said, hardly keeping her laughter at bay. "They're at the stables, and they actually aren't horses, they're pegasi."

Percy grumbled. "Whatever. They aren't bunking in here, now are they?"

The image of pegasi trotting around the space they were in and sleeping here was too funny for anyone to resist laughing at.

* * *

 

Percy snuck out of his cabin for the second time, after everyone was asleep. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't. Sleep, that is.

He paced along the beach, hoping to walk out his energy, reveling in the strength of the sea beside him. Then Percy nearly smacked himself: here he was, standing next to the source of his power, hoping to get tired. That's not going to happen anytime soon.

Before he could turn to go, he heard splashes behind him that didn't coincide with the rest of the pounding sea.

He turned around again, searching the sea for the source of the splashes.

_Help us, lord!_

Percy started. _What the…_

Then the horses came into view. Well, horses with fish tails. And people think that humans with fish tails look weird!

_Help us, lord!_

"I'm not a lord," Percy told them, irritated. "Why do you need help?"

_There's a creature stuck at the bottom, lord!_

"Don't call me lord, gods damnit!" Percy yelled in frustration. "Where is it?"

_Yes, lord, whatever you say, lord. Follow us!_

Percy waded into the sea after them, swimming through the frigid water. The fish-horses— _hippocampi_ , the word appeared, unbidden in his head—swirled around a sunken fishing boat, stirring up the muck.

"Whoa!" Percy yelled, nearly getting trampled. "I don't need a stampede here!"

_We don't know what it is, lord. Many strange things are stirring._

"I got that," Percy muttered, trying to find the creature they were all worked up about.

He waited a little for the muck to settle. Percy blinked when he saw the sea creature.

It was a cow.

"Moooo," it mooed mournfully.

The poor thing was all tangled up in kelp and part of it was trapped under the fishing boat.

"How on earth did you get under there?" Percy muttered, swimming closer. The underwater cow shied away from him. "Hey hey hey," he soothed. "I'm trying to help. It's okay. I'm going to try and get you out of there."

_Free it, lord!_

"Yes, I got that, too," Percy muttered impatiently, eyeing the cow, the kelp, and the sunken wreck.

"Moooooo," the cow mooed again.

"I don't understand you," Percy informed it. "I have this weird disorder where I only understand horses. Sorry."

His mother would've facepalmed at that sentence. Percy pushed the thought aside.

Percy drew his sword, intending to cut the cow free of the kelp and get a closer look on what part of him was trapped under the boat, but the cow absolutely freaked when it saw the blade.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, _whoa_ ," Percy said, trying to calm it down. "I'm just trying to cut you free, I'm not going to do anything harmful to you, but you need to keep still!"

Instead of reassuring the cow, it thrashed more. Percy put the blade up. "It's okay. See? No sword. Sword's gone. Peaceful thoughts. Mama cows. Vegetarianism. Manatees."

He held out his hand for the cow to inspect. It sniffed his hand and then butted against it like a cat.

"You're weird, you know that?" Percy muttered, eyeing the mess that he would have to untangle the cow from. "You gonna let me near you now?"

"Moo," it grunted.

Percy took that as a yes, and set to work.

Needless to say, it took forever. An hour passed before the cow was free from the kelp and Percy discovered that the back half of the cow was like some kind of serpent's tail. If you took a cow, a baby sea serpent, and modeled it like a hippocampus, you'd get something like what he was looking at.

He told the hippocampi to push the boat over so that the cow-serpent would be free. When the carcass of the boat lifted off of the cow's tail, it darted forward on it's own, butted it's head against Percy's side, and swam off.

Percy half-laughed and half-sighed as he swam back to the surface.

* * *

 

Thalia shook her brother and cousins awake at the crack of dawn. "If I know the Hunters, they'll have left before us, despite the prophecy, just to escape from _males_." She rolled her eyes.

Percy quickly slung his bag that he'd carried for so many months over one shoulder, pocketing Riptide. He turned around, and saw that Thalia and Jason were doing the same thing. Bianca and Nico were still packing their bags.

Bianca was packing the bare necessities, whereas Nico was shoveling everything he could fit into his bag. The trio burst into laughter. The two siblings turned around.

"What?" Bianca asked defensively.

Jason moved to help Bianca out, mirth dancing in his eyes, and Percy walked around to Nico, emptying his pack onto the bed, letting out a low whistle, surprised at how much he'd been able to stuff in there.

"Okay, look, Nico. You need more than the bare necessities, but you definitely don't need all of," he gestured towards the mess on the bed helplessly, " _this_."

Extra clothing, canteens of both water and nectar, plastic baggies of food and ambrosia, Nico's Myth-o-magic cards and statues, a bar of soap, some money from the camp store, and a couple of tools and extra weapons were all debated on. Bianca got more into her pack, while Nico had significantly less. Percy let Nico take his cards because he doubted that they'd be coming back to the cabin for a while.

They ventured out of the Poseidon cabin warily.

Chiron came galloping up to them. "The Hunters that are going are waiting impatiently in the car."

"That's surprising," Thalia muttered. "I'd have thought that they would've taken off without us."

Annabeth, of course, was already there, along with Luke and Grover. Coupled with the fact that most of the Big Three group was boys, the Hunters were probably going to be absolutely fuming by the end of the trip.

They all piled into the car. Among the Hunters, there was only Zoë and Phoebe who deigned to travel with males, and Annabeth, Luke, and Grover were the only ones who were campers, and that left the five of the Big Three: the strangers. Or so they guessed, at least.

Meanwhile, the Big Three kids were just hoping that the 'strangers' didn't mean the _Romans_.

The road trip was long, as they traveled to Richmond, Virginia, to board a train. Zoë sat in the driver's seat, with Phoebe next to her, Luke and Thalia behind them, with Jason and Bianca behind them, Grover and Nico behind those two, and Percy and Annabeth sitting in the far back, as far away from each other as possible.

What made it interesting was the fact that they all had nervous habits. Annabeth slapped her cap against her thigh. Percy ran a hand through his hair, his fingers drumming against the seat. Nico fiddled with one of his figurines. Grover let out the occasional bleat. Bianca played with her fire. Jason's fingers were crackling with electricity. Phoebe ran her hands together, her calluses on her hands creating a rough scraping noise. Zoë occasionally let out a noisy huff of air.

"We need to stop just outside of Richmond," Thalia said, leaning forward to speak to Zoë, though it was unnecessary, as the car was silent except for the movements.

"Wherefore, daughter of Zeus?" Zoë asked tensely.

"I have supplies stocked in a safe house on the James River," Thalia said easily. "Jason and I stayed there for an extremely long time, compared to our other safe houses; we have things there that may be vital to the quest."

"How long until we reach there?" Zoë asked warily.

Thalia studied the surroundings going past. "Five minutes at most," she said, recognizing that huge, twisted oak. "Probably two."

"Why did thee not inform me of this sooner?" Zoë asked testily.

"It didn't occur to me until just now," Thalia said angrily.

Zoë pulled over and the car lurched to a stop. Thalia climbed out and slammed the door shut, walking off into the woods confidently. Percy and Jason followed suit.

"Wait," Luke said. "Why are all of you going? You're all Big Three kids, you should take someone with less scent."

"We've survived this long that way, I don't think we'll run into too much trouble," Percy said, smiling a little hesitantly.

Twenty minutes later, the three returned, with a jar of black gunk, a new bow and quiver for Thalia, and a new sword for Percy, as well as more ambrosia and nectar.

She tossed the jar of gunk to Luke, the ambrosia and nectar to Bianca, and climbed into the van. Luke held up the jar curiously. "What the heck is in this?"

"Greek fire that hasn't been lighted," Thalia said shortly. "Had to make some in an emergency, came up with two jars. I used one, kept the other. Right now, it's about as dangerous as mud."

"You _made_ Greek fire?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

"What, you guys use it all the time in your mock-naval battles," Thalia said defensively.

"Greek fire can only be made in a forge with some seriously weird materials," Annabeth explained. "At least, as far as I knew."

"It has to get really hot to light," Thalia explained. "Once you get all of the ingredients, you're fine. Or, at least, Jason and I are. I can make more if I had the ingredients and if the car doesn't mind getting fried."

Annabeth looked mildly alarmed. "Let's not say we did."

Thalia shrugged, buckling her seat belt.

The ride continued.

Luke and Annabeth suddenly straightened. "Pull over," Luke said.

Zoë rolled her eyes. "Do you have a safe house as well?"

Luke and Annabeth were already out of the car and running down the road. Startled, the Big Three kids exchanged glances and followed, unsure if it was a monster or what, climbing out of the car and sprinting after them. Zoë groaned in frustration and followed, Phoebe following her. Grover sighed and followed the mass exodus.

They found Luke and Annabeth gathered around a small area in an abandoned ironworks shop. Annabeth reverently picked up a rusted hammer, smiling sadly, clutching it to her chest like a six-year-old with a teddy bear.

Luke was hugging her comfortingly. "We'll get her back."

Annabeth laughed weakly. "She scared the absolute crap out of me, right here. So did you, actually."

"Because I grabbed the hand that you tried to brain me with?" Luke said dryly.

Annabeth's shoulder's shook. "Yeah. And I didn't know what to make of Ethan. He looked creepy in the dim light. 'Almost evil' was my exact thought. Now I wish that I could go back and tell my younger self that he will be."

Luke shrugged helplessly, rubbing her back.

"Must we stop for every memory?" Zoë demanded impatiently, catching up to the Big Three kids. "We must rescue Artemis before it is too late for her."

Annabeth whirled on her, grey eyes flashing. "Has it ever occurred to you that we have just as much right to want to hurry as you do? In case you haven't noticed, Artemis is immortal, unable to die. Clarisse, however, is a lot more easily killed and beaten than your mistress."

"Then why do thee dally?!" Zoë cried impatiently.

"The prophecy says that five of us—five of this very group—are to 'venture into no man's land'. Personally, I believe that they'll die in this _no man's land_. This prophecy isn't cheery, not in the least, and Luke's had some severe prophecies before. 'She who holds power, her power be waned'? It sounds like one of the females here—including you, Zoë, including me and Bianca and Thalia and Phoebe—something is going to happen to one of us, to strip us of our powers or even negate them completely. 'The Titan's Curse'? There's a lot of curses on the Titans, and now one of us has to 'withstand' it? None of us are strong enough to bear a curse enforced on a Titan. Think about it, Zoë! With the amount of deaths that could be, there'd only be three or four left to return. As much as I want to rescue Clarisse, I also don't want to see the strangers die, to see Luke or Grover or you or Phoebe die."

Zoë studied Annabeth with a stony face. "There is one curse," she said finally. "One curse that a mortal can bear. Only the strongest and bravest are able to bear it, those with the most spirit."

They all waited.

"The sky," Zoë said quietly. "We are going to Mount Tam, Mount Othyrus, where Atlas holds the sky. No doubt he forced Clarisse to take the burden. When they captured Artemis, she would've been compelled to help a hurting maiden."

Luke and Annabeth seemed pale.

"You can't force that burden on someone," Thalia said quietly. "This guy that started this whole shebang—Evan? Earl?"

"Ethan," Annabeth said quietly.

"Yes, him," Thalia agreed. "Ethan would've taken the burden willingly from Atlas. From what I know about Clarisse, she might've wormed her way from her captors and stole over the mountain top, looking for a way out, and encountered Ethan, whom she'd known and trusted for a long time. The burden saps your strength at an incredible pace, so Ethan would've been in pain. Clarisse might've given into the side that screamed at her 'he's a good guy!' And then Artemis comes and takes the burden from Clarisse."

The Hunters and Campers seemed grey.

"I'll go get the car, I doubt you guys will be able to walk there," Thalia said quietly, and jogged off.

She came back in thirty seconds later, spear out in the open and ready to use. Everyone drew their weapons. "We've got a problem," Thalia said grimly, uneasily twirling her spear. "The house across the street is abandoned. So why did the door just open without human assistance?"

* * *

 

"Three people," Phoebe offered. "Since that's how many members are usually on a quest. It should be safer. The rest of us wait out here."

"There's ten of us," Luke pointed out dryly. "And half of us are literally born leaders, and two more are natural leaders in and of themselves. So who are we going to choose, and are they going to end up killing each other rather than the monster or what-have-you?"

"Thalia or Jason," Annabeth suggested. "If things get bad, they can blast the house and we'll know to come in."

"Luke," Thalia said slowly, studying the demigod of Hermes. "You can get us into and out of the mansion if all the doors suddenly lock by themselves, correct?"

Luke shrugged. "I honestly don't know. It depends on what locked them, if they're stronger than I am."

"You have a better shot than anyone else, but are unsure," Thalia surmised. "And if I'm going to blast the house anyway, I'm going to be charging my Greek fire, and if we're taking potent fires, I'm taking Bianca. Hellfire and Greek fire are extremely similar, I learned that went we PO'd Hades."

Bianca chewed on the inside of her cheek nervously, but agreed to go. "What about Annabeth?"

Luke, Annabeth, and Thalia looked at the daughter of Hades in surprise. Bianca flushed a little at the attention. "Well, she's a daughter of Athena, the wisest goddess, and considering how badly south this could go, a little bit of wisdom can't hurt…"

Thalia shrugged. "Okay. C'mon, Annabeth."

Thalia, Luke, Annabeth and Bianca crept towards the house, which now looked normal. Shut door, locked windows, drawn blinds, the whole shebang.

"Is it locked?" Bianca asked.

Thalia tested the doorknob and nodded, frowning. "The door was hanging open like two minutes ago. Why is it locked now?"

"Maybe to warn us of danger?" Luke asked wryly.

Thalia sighed. "Probably. Do your thing, Luke."

He gritted his teeth. "I hate doing my thing." But he put his hand against the knob and mentally pushed the little knobs inside the lock into the open position anyway.

"That is so cool," Thalia said.

Annabeth had the same look on her face, with a wistful smile. "I used to find locks when we were on the run and I'd make him open them."

"You drove me nuts, doing that," Luke told her dryly.

"Not any worse than Percy taking a picture every time I lighted something on fire with my lightning," Thalia said exasperatedly.

Bianca opened the door cautiously and ventured in. The three others shut up and followed her.

They stood back-to-back in the lobby, waiting for something to happen. The four stood there for a full half a minute in the silence, illuminated by the light coming in the open door.

Then the door slammed shut of its own accord.

Luke darted to it and tried to open it, found it locked, and then he stopped and tried unlocking it until beads of sweat popped up on his forehead, but nothing happened.

"Window," Thalia said urgently, making for one of the drape-covered windows.

She got within five feet of the dark curtain and suddenly it came alive, lunging for Thalia and her at-ready spear. It wrapped around Thalia in a poisonous embrace, and she screamed in pain, stabbing at it. Luke grabbed her and forcibly removed Thalia from the deadly curtain. He fell backwards, and Thalia landed heavily on top of them, both of them gasping in pain.

Annabeth went white when she saw Luke's arm, sprawled on the dusty floor. It was covered in bright red blisters, oozing with black stuff that was most likely poisonous.

Thalia was curled up in a fetal position, half-sobs coming out.

Bianca fumbled for her canteen of nectar, scrambling over to the two. "Thalia, I know it hurts, but I need to see it so I can heal it."

Without waiting for Thalia to respond, Bianca coated her finger in nectar and dabbed at the sores wherever they were visible and not covered by the rest of Thalia's body.

"You're lucky you wear leather," Bianca said shakily, liking to throw up. "I'd get a new jacket, though, after all this is over."

"I'll just take one from another monster, like I did this one," Thalia said through gritted teeth.

"Guys?" Annabeth called.

They all looked up. Annabeth held up a piece of armor that looked like it could withstand a spear thrust from Thalia, and yet it had a horseshoe-shaped dent in it.

"It probably just got trod on by a horse," Bianca reasoned, going back to administering to Thalia's blisters. Luke looked uneasy, but continued trickling nectar over his arms.

"Guys, this looks more like gums rather than a horseshoe," Annabeth said warily, studying the piece of armor.

Thalia finally uncurled from her fetal position, wincing. Whatever the curtain did to Thalia, it was definitely poisonous, and Bianca renewed her efforts on getting Thalia healed as quickly as possible.

_Clack, clack, clack!_

The four froze.

_Clack, clack, clack!_

Red eyes appeared in the shadows, in the corner, beyond the deadly curtains. Bianca, Thalia, and Luke scrambled away. The monster stepped on Thalia's half-disintegrated spear and broke it in half with a loud _CRACK._ It seemed unbothered by the deadly curtains that wrapped themselves around it.

"Well, there goes that weapon," Thalia muttered.

"Up the stairs!" Annabeth said urgently, already sprinting towards them. The other three followed, Thalia leaning on Bianca a little bit. Annabeth dithered at the top of the stairs, debating which hallway to go down, when more monsters showed up and she made her decision: "Left!" she yelled.

Bianca and Thalia were lagging behind. Luke stepped back and picked up Thalia like she was a feather and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Put me _down_ , you _stupid_ son of Hermes!" Thalia screamed at him.

"It's not my fault that you're poisoned!" he yelled back at her, running after Annabeth.

"How was I supposed to know that the curtains were alive and kicking poisonously?!" Thalia yelled defensively.

"Will both of you lovebirds _shut up_?!" Annabeth yelled at both of them.

"We _aren't_ lovebirds!" they screamed at her in unison.

"Are you _really_ discussing this now?" Bianca said, exasperated. She opened a door and yanked them all in, and hurriedly shut the door.

"Hello."

They all screamed and turned around. Annabeth scooped up a discarded weapon on the floor and nailed the whatever-it-was in the eye. It blinked at her angrily. "Wait! Wait! That won't do you any good," the monster said.

"Luke, you can put me down, now," Thalia said into Luke's back, sounding supremely irritated. "Or I'm going to kick the crap out of your nuts."

Luke hurriedly set Thalia down, and she stumbled a little.

"Tend to her," the monster said reassuringly. "Those curtains are nasty." It growled.

"What _are_ you?" Bianca asked warily.

"The monster is called a leucrota, if that's what you mean. It speaks for me. I am human. A demigod, like you." The leucrota snarled.

 _Clack, clack, clack!_ it went. Luke saw that its mouth was lining with something metal-looking, and when it snapped its jaws shut, it created that _clack_ sound.

"My name is Hal," the leucrota said. Thalia turned her attention to an old man sitting on his bed.

Bianca made her sit down, eyeing the monster warily. "Does it respond to you?" she asked.

"Yes," the leucrota said.

"Send it away. I don't feel comfortable with it staring me down, bars or no bars," Bianca said firmly. "Plus, we're making a plan for getting out of here, and I don't know if it understands us."

"We won't have a way for communicating," Hal protested.

"Writing things down. Morse code. We can all lip-read," Luke suggested.

The leucrota snarled and backed out of the room.

They all visibly relaxed. Bianca tended to Thalia a little quicker now that she wasn't moving so stiffly. "What are we going to do about your spear?" she asked Thalia.

She shrugged. "Between my brother, you and your brother, and Percy, we should attract enough monsters to replace my spear and then some."

"It was a magic weapon!" Annabeth protested. "That's the highest honor you can get!"

Thalia's eyes narrowed at Annabeth. "You know, I can see why Percy rubs you the wrong way, and vice versa. You love the gods. Percy doesn't. You respect the gods. Percy doesn't. You have contact with the gods. Percy doesn't. None of us do. I _won_ that weapon when Jason was two, and when I wrestled it from the _dracaena_ that held it, _it was not a magic item_. My father turned it into such because I caught the attention of the rest of the gods, with the help of my brother and Percy. That weapon had worn spots where I put my hands. That weapon held many memories for me. That weapon was _my_ spear. And this weapon that's downstairs and broken?" Thalia shook her head. "That's just _a_ spear. It bears no worn spots, no memories, and it is not mine. If I had won it, and it was a magic item, I would've claimed it as mine. But it is not, and it was not."

Hal wrote something down in the silence that followed: _An eloquent speaker_.

"I hold no love for the gods," she said flatly. "I've survived for ten years on my own, caring for two unskilled and naïve boys. And when I'm around you guys, my father makes an executive decision without my consent. I'd prefer being ignored."

Thunder rumbled. "Oh, shut up, you stupid, deadbeat, over-controlling, lily-livered coward!" Thalia screamed at the ceiling.

The other three stared at her in shock. Hal was silently laughing.

"Um, I think that poison has gone to her head," Luke said warily. "Personally, I don't feel like being collateral damage."

"Ha ha," Thalia snapped sarcastically.

Bianca just shook her head. She sat back. "I believe I got all of the sores, but you should rest."

Hal scribbled something down: _You have until sunset when those bars raise, and I can do nothing to stop the leucrota._

Thalia checked her watch. "It's two o'clock. When's sunset?"

Hal wrote, _6:13 pm._

"Can you light that Greek fire?" Bianca asked.

"An hour of sleep is all I need," Thalia promised. "I've been through much worse. Plus, we need to get going. We've got friends waiting for us."

"Okay then," Luke agreed. "Sleep. We'll wake you up in an hour."

* * *

 

Thalia woke to someone shaking her shoulder. "Lemme 'lone, Jace," Thalia mumbled.

"Yup, she's fine," someone said.

Then Thalia remembered, and she bolted upright, slamming her head against someone else's. "Ow!" she yelled.

"What the crap!" the other person hollered.

"What on earth were you doing so close to me?!" Thalia screeched, clutching her head.

"Damn, you've got a hard head!"

There were some laughs.

Thalia's vision cleared, and she saw that it was Luke that she'd just rammed into. He was wincing as he touched the side of his head. Thalia felt a bit better that he was in just as much pain as she was.

"Well, I was going to tell you that I cracked a magic safe and apparently got a weapon that nobody knows how to work, but since it feels like your head just cracked my skull open, maybe not!" Luke said loudly.

Stifling laughter, Bianca showed her a charm bracelet. Thalia's eyes widened, now fully awake. "Yeah, I know what that is. I'll wait until we're facing an enemy, though."

Bianca gave her the bracelet. "I think it's yours, then, because none of us have a clue."

"It's probably just a knockoff," she admitted as she clipped it on. "But the story is something all Zeus kids know. Where's the Greek fire bottle?"

Annabeth handed it to her. "Are you sure that's Greek fire?"

Thalia shrugged. "Well, the other bottle worked, and this is from the same batch, so…yeah, I'm pretty sure. I just need to light it. Then it'll look like the Greek fire you're accustomed to seeing."

She started crawling under the computer desk, taking off the cover for the socket.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Luke asked, rubbing his head still.

"I can't access the window, so I'm going to have to have the lightning strike the rod outside, and direct the electricity through to here," Thalia explained. "Otherwise, the Greek fire won't light."

Annabeth arched an eyebrow. "I thought Greek fire was dangerously unstable."

Thalia smiled. "In this form? It's as stable as a Noble Gas. Add a lot of electricity? That's when you need to run. Oh, you might want to go to the far side of the room."

Thalia knelt under the computer table, holding the Greek fire sludge and concentrating on the weather outside. Thunder rumbled. Then lightning flashed, lightning up the world, and thunder deafened the occupants of the room. Thalia crawled out from under the table, smirking proudly, holding up the jar of swirling, green, potent fire.

Bianca's eyes widened. Thalia noticed her expression. "Can you control it?"

She held out her hands. Thalia gave the bottle to her, watching curiously. Nothing seemed to happen as Bianca sat on the floor, staring at the bottle. Then the fire churned more violently, and all of a sudden it shrank into a little tiny ball, about the size of a marble. She held up the bottle for the rest of them to see, smiling tiredly.

"Okay, then," Thalia exclaimed. "Let's torch this place!"

They all raided the bathroom and bedroom for things to take with them. When the three girls came back from the bathroom, they found Luke arguing with Hal.

"No!" he said vehemently. "Bianca can control it!"

Hal scribbled something down and shoved it into Luke's face. His expression turned from pale to red. "Apollo wouldn't do that!"

Hal looked at him.

"You've served your time!" Luke told him vehemently. "You can go to camp, you can teach there, regardless of you being mute!"

Hal looked at him some more.

"I am not letting you sacrifice yourself because you think that Bianca—a daughter of Hades—is not _capable enough_ to control the Greek fire!" Luke yelled at him.

Hal scribbled something else.

"I can carry her if it comes to that!" Luke protested.

Hal wrote something down.

"No," Luke said flatly. Hal undid the knife from his belt and handed it to Luke, who didn't take it. "I'm not going to take it, you stubborn old man, because you're going to need it!"

Hal gave Luke a look that said, _I've been called much worse._

Luke pushed Hal's knife away. " _No._ N-O. I'm starting to wonder if you're deaf!"

Hal wrote something down and showed it to Luke.

Luke's red face turned ashen. "Hal, _no_."

"Luke?" Annabeth asked cautiously, looking from the old man to the son of Hermes. "What's going on?"

Luke spluttered. "This _idiot_ is convinced that he's going to die in the explosion, freeing him of his curse of having to rely on the leucrota. He wants to throw the Greek fire bottle when it comes to that time, and he wants to give his knife to us, which apparently has some sort of ward against evil on it."

" _What?_ " they yelled.

"We can find another way," Thalia assured him.

"He said that this is the only way," Luke said flatly.

"He doesn't know what this can do," Thalia said vehemently, shaking her charm bracelet.

"I know. I told him that. He said that this is the only way," Luke said.

There was silence in the room.

"Are you sure?" Annabeth asked Hal quietly. He nodded.

She handed him the vial.

"Annabeth!" Thalia yelled, shocked.

Bianca gave a wordless yell of protest.

Hal gave her the knife, with a note. Annabeth read it, and smiled sadly at him. "I'll treasure it."

To the rest of them, she said, "Hide in the bathroom. There's an extra door that leads into the hallway. Hal's going to raise the bars, attract all the leucrota, and we're going to dart out of the house."

"What about the door?" Thalia questioned.

"We'll break it down if it comes to that," Annabeth said. "Luke and I are masters of breaking doors down."

Thalia nodded, and the four of them went into the bathroom. They could hear the leucrotae snarling. "C'mon, you stupid mutts! They're annoying me!"

It was strange to hear a leucrota insult itself, Thalia mused. Then she heard the squealing of metal against metal, and they darted out of the bathroom, towards the front door. The hallways and rooms were empty.

"They're in the bathroom!" they could hear Hal shout. Then, they could hear a wordless battle cry. " _Eat this you filthy monsters!_ "

The explosion rocked the world. The blast knocked the door off its hinges and shot them out of the mansion. Thalia landed, rolling with the impact, and kept running towards the car, tears streaming down her face. The rest of the group, having seen the strike and presumed trouble, were outside the house and trying to figure out a way in. Thalia dragged the rest of them with her, and they piled into the car.

"Drive," she ordered Zoë, her voice cracking.

Zoë stepped on the gas pedal, and they rocketed away from the blazing mansion.

Thalia hugged Bianca as the younger girl began to sob. Two seats back, Luke and Annabeth had tears dripping down their faces.

The rest of the car just sat in stunned silence as Thalia Grace broke down, hugging one of the newest members of the Big Three group, both to comfort and for comfort.


	5. Rachel Elizabeth Dare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The obligatory train episode, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare makes her entrance in a big way.

They boarded the train that evening. Annabeth took up the dangerous habit of lounging between cars, balancing on the hook and leaning up against a car, watching the scenery pass her by and under her, feeling the slight breeze against her face. Thanks to the machinery, it was probably the quietest place on the train.

Five hours after she started this, Thalia opened the car door and freaked out that Annabeth was just standing there without a care in the world.

Needless to say, Annabeth moved to a different spot.

Another five hours after Thalia's freak-out, Percy found her. Annabeth watched with mild interest as he shut the door behind him and mimicked her posture: two feet on the hook with his back up against the car to steady himself.

After five minutes of them both simply watching the gravel pass by under them, Percy finally spoke: "I can actually see why you like it out here. It's peaceful." He suddenly flashed Annabeth a wry grin. "Being someone who has rarely gotten a break since he was six, I can appreciate peace."

"Your cousin doesn't agree," Annabeth told him dryly.

Percy laughed. "Yeah, she has that mother bear instinct for most of us."

They lapsed into silence again.

"Who was Clarisse?" Percy suddenly asked. "I mean, what was she like?"

Annabeth looked at him, startled. "Why?"

Percy's lips twitched. "Normally, I stick out my neck for people I actually know. I haven't got a clue what she's like or what her connection to the camp is."

Annabeth lapsed into silence, thinking. "You know about all those movies with that one singular hero?"

He raised an eyebrow, but he nodded.

"Clarisse is that hero," she said. "She isn't _a_ hero in Camp Half-Blood. Clarisse is _the_ hero. At one point or another, she's saved every single demigod in that Camp."

"Including you?" Percy questioned.

"Especially me," Annabeth confirmed.

The daughter of Athena sighed and turned her eyes to the lightening sky. "To understand Clarisse, you must understand where she comes from. Clarisse is a daughter of Ares. Her mother knew who she had attracted, and unlike Thalia's mother, Clarisse's mother took care of Clarisse until the point where Clarisse was literally locked in the house. Clarisse, needless to say, couldn't stand that and ran away from home. She, like you, wandered around for years. According to her, when she was twelve, she ran into Luke, who also ran away from home and was fourteen at the time, and they paired up. It stayed that way for another six months until they found Ethan, whose father had died within two weeks before they found him. He was the same age as Luke and Clarisse—fourteen or so."

Annabeth exhaled. "Six months later, I ran away from home. I knew the police would be after me, so I hid in that abandoned factory back there. I was armed with a hammer and I had fleece pajamas on." She smiled wryly. "When I heard Luke and Clarisse talking, I thought they were the police and I nearly brained Luke with that hammer. Not quite, but I was so close. Clarisse, even though she was hardly twelve at the time, was big and hulking. Frankly put, between Luke grabbing my wrist with the hammer faster than I had thought possible, and her size, I got the crap scared out of my seven-year-old self. Ethan simply held the torch, and in the light he looked almost evil."

"You said in the warehouse that you wish that you could go back and tell your younger self that he _would_ be evil," Percy remembered.

She shrugged helplessly. "I looked up to him. I looked up to all of them. It just hurt that much more when Ethan tried to kill Luke, five years later."

Percy wasn't good at math, but he tried. "You were twelve?"

She nodded absently. "The nymphs dragged Luke out from the woods. He was green and turning gray when we got to him. If it wasn't for Chiron's healing and Luke's resistance to most poisons, he'd be dead right now. But you want to know about Clarisse."

"See, Clarisse is powerful—more powerful than your average child of Ares. We've never figured out why; for a long time we never even thought about why, we just went with it. She wasn't as powerful as, say, a Big Three kid, but she can rival Thalia when it comes to weapons. She's called on her father's power more than any other demigod known in history. But because of that, monsters were attracted to us. Like you, I thought the high number was normal—until I got to Camp and people told us otherwise."

"A satyr was sent to grab Clarisse and make sure she got to Camp alive—don't do anything that would distract from the mission. But he couldn't just take Clarisse and leave with her, and there was the fact that Clarisse wouldn't leave without us, so he tried to take us all to Camp. Somehow I got separated from the group, and they had to backtrack so they could find me, and then we resumed running towards Camp."

She exhaled. "We made it all the way to the edge of the valley when the monsters caught up to us. Clarisse made the satyr take the rest of us farther into the valley while she held them off. She was fatally wounded."

Percy's breath hitched. "I was Athena's youngest child—second youngest, now," Annabeth continued distantly. She wasn't really on the train at the moment; she was seven again, kicking Luke and Ethan, straining to get back to Clarisse. "My mother saw what Clarisse had done for me, and instead of Clarisse dying, Athena turned her into an olive tree. But we didn't know that, and we all thought her dead, and the tree was the way of Athena thanking Ares publicly. We all thought that was it."

"Then, two weeks later—I remember this distinctly—there was a half-blood that faced off with the Minotaur with nothing but his bare hands. When the demigod went past Clarisse's tree, the monster followed and suddenly looked like he'd smashed into an invisible stone wall. One of the monster's horns broke off, and the demigod used the horn to kill the Minotaur. That's when we realized that Athena's gift was much more than a public thanks—it had turned CampHalf-Blood into a true safe haven."

"Who was it?" Percy asked curiously.

Annabeth looked startled. "My older half-brother, Malcolm. He doesn't look like much, but he uses that to his advantage." She laughed a little. "Sometimes he catches even me off guard."

"The years passed peacefully, until I turned twelve. Then Zeus's lightning bolt was stolen and Luke was the prime suspect, and everything was in havoc: demigods were panicking, monsters were amassing, we had more than one death, and it was constantly raining—in case you hadn't noticed, the Camp has weather control, it doesn't rain or snow unless it's permitted. I went on the quest with Luke and Grover, yada yada yada, we brought back the lightning bolt, Zeus was happy, it stopped raining, and things returned to normal, until Luke was poisoned and Ethan revealed that he was working for Kronos. Then things plunged back into havoc again."

Annabeth grew quiet until Percy thought she'd talked herself hoarse. Then she started talking again. "Then, last summer, Clarisse's tree was poisoned. Grover disappeared like all the satyrs before him, on their quest to find the lost god Pan."

"Uh, sorry, did you say Pam? Like the cooking spray?" Percy asked, confused.

"Pan," Annabeth explained. "P-A-N. He's the god of the Wild, the satyr's true master. Anyway."

"Luke, me, and a very sweet Cyclops named Tyson—"

Percy choked. "You went on a quest with a _Cyclops_?"

"He's your half-brother," Annabeth said, grinning at Percy's shocked face. "And besides, he's has the mentality of an eight-year-old, despite his six-foot-seven build."

Annabeth, for half a second, thought that Percy was going to have a heart attack. Then he shuddered and Annabeth resumed her story with a bit of amusement. "But yes, Luke, Tyson, and I went on a quest to get Grover and also to get the one thing that could cure Clarisse's tree: the Golden Fleece." She suddenly grimaced. "Long story short, we went into the Sea of Monsters, I was less than friendly towards Tyson for the majority of the trip, Luke somehow got himself turned into a guinea pig, we stole a ride on Ethan's cruise liner for a little bit there, we saved Grover, got the Fleece, and then Ethan tried to steal it from us after we did all the hard work."

"He was going to use it to heal Kronos," Percy guessed.

Annabeth nodded, surprised that Percy picked that up so quickly. "Yeah. Unfortunately for Ethan, we had sent the Golden Fleece on ahead of us." She said that sentence with a smirk that would've been visible from a mile away. "Anyway, the Golden Fleece was hung on Clarisse's tree, and it was okay. The poison was purged."

Her eyes were distant. "That night, I stood watch on the hill to make sure no one was to steal the Golden Fleece. There always had been a guard up there, until we got Peleus, who now guards the Fleece. It was totally unexpected. I was just standing there, minding my own business, when her body appeared in front of me. I just stood there in shock. Grover found me first, and then ran and got everybody, pounding on doors and yelling at people to wake up, to go to Half-Blood Hill. Chiron came out. Our newest son of Demeter—he actually looks quite like you, only with dark brown hair and a little shorter—he pushed past everyone crowded around me and Clarisse, and propped her up on his shoulder. Everyone just stood there in shock as he yelled at us for being slow-poking idiots, and for them to help her to the Big House, to get her to the infirmary."

"Then Clarisse stirred, making it very certain that she was alive, coughed, and asked, 'Who the hell are you?' to Liam." Her shoulders shook with laughter. "Six years of being a tree, and the first thing she asks is 'who the hell are you?'. That's so Clarisse." Annabeth paused. "But it was weird, Clarisse still thought she had just turned thirteen. Technically, she should be around Thalia's age, but she only looks sixteen or so." Annabeth grimaced. "She didn't react well to me being a teenager, or Luke being in his early twenties, or that we were now waging war on Ethan. She thought I was seven, Luke fourteen, and Ethan the shy kid that hung out at the back of the group."

"Well, she was turned into a tree," Percy pointed out reasonably. "Last I checked, most trees don't really have physical brains so that they can think. She probably didn't even realize she'd been turned into a tree."

"She didn't," Annabeth agreed. "She thought she was going crazy. She sounded crazy for awhile, there, too. Kept saying that she was supposed to be dying, not having Annabeth being a _teenager_."

Her shoulders shook a little with laughter.

Percy had a wry smile on his lips.

"About a month into it, she gave up after I whaled her one—with her own moves—for calling me a 'hallucinatory knockoff of Annabeth'—and that's a direct quote," Annabeth said smugly.

Percy laughed aloud, the sound carrying beyond the small space and was lost in the wind of the train's wake. The silence that followed was comfortable.

"Thalia said something about you not respecting the gods, back at the mansion," Annabeth said hesitantly. "What's that all about?"

Percy's face darkened. "Back before Thalia and Jason had found me, I lived with my mother and stepfather."

He lapsed into silence, a brooding expression on his face. "You don't know my mother, so you can't appreciate how truly horrible it was, but my stepfather was a drunk. To be put shortly so I can get this over with, he stank. My mother married him, for _me_. He covered up my scent for years. He hit my mother, he beat me, and by the name of my cousin's father, if he'd made the wrong move, I would've killed him."

Percy's voice rasped with the sound of cold steel, much like a mortal sword blade. He stated the last sentence, so it sounded more like a fact rather than an oath or threat or promise. Annabeth shivered unconsciously, and it had nothing to do with the chilly night's air.

"When I went with Thalia and Jason, Mom divorced him, and we made my apartment a safe house. As far as I know, we have several deadly weapons at the apartment, a jar of unlit Greek fire, nectar, ambrosia, and a whole bunch of other demigod necessities."

Annabeth paused, thinking before she spoke. "So why the hatred for the gods?"

Percy met her gaze coolly. "My father has made no effort to come into my life, even after I found out who I actually was. He sat by as me and Mom were beat by an abusive drunk because of my lineage and the gods' never-ending supply of enemies." He looked up to the fading stars. "No. I have no respect for my father, nor my dramatic Uncle. The only three I have respect for is Hades, Hestia, and Athena."

Annabeth was startled. "Athena? Why Athena?"

Percy gave a bitter laugh. "Because you've met her, and she's been kind to you, which is more than I can say for my group. And it has the added bonus of irritating dear old Dad."

Annabeth gave him a wary look. "Between you and Thalia, I'm surprised this train hasn't been blown sky-high."

Percy simply laughed at her, throwing his head back and laughing to the sky. "Between Hera and Apollo, I highly doubt this train can be blown to smithereens."

The daughter of Athena gave him a lost look.

Percy pointed against the car she was standing against. "The side says _Sunwest Railways_. And we're looking for his twin sister, of whom he is extremely protective of. Coincidence, no? And the fact that Thalia and Jason hate their father for making their life miserable via telling their mother who Zeus really was—well, that probably gives something to Hera for her to gloat about—you know, sticking to the oath of marriage and all that jazz."

Annabeth was silent, digesting that. "What about Hades? Why do you respect him? Fear him, maybe, but respect?"

Percy gave her a wan smile. " _He_ came to _me_ —a mere demigod—asking me to take care of his children. He may be a deadbeat, but at least he visibly cares enough to watch over them."

Annabeth went silent, pondering on that. "Hestia has no children, so why do you respect her? Have you met her?"

Percy grinned. "I love Aunty Hestia. There's only been two times when she's shown up at our fire, but she's a lot of fun. And she teaches us stuff, too."

" _Teaches_ you?" Annabeth asked, bewildered.

"I have a first-grade education, Wise Girl," Percy said dryly. "Thalia has a third-grade education, and Jason has no official education, period. Aunty Hestia brings us textbooks so that we can figure out what people are saying."

Annabeth stared at him, aghast. "You have a _first-grade_ education?!"

"I know, right?" he agreed. "You don't realize how important school is until you haven't got a clue what the person next to you is talking about."

"You know how to write," Annabeth checked warily. Percy nodded, an amused look on his face.

"And read," she asked. Percy nodded, now barely suppressing a laugh.

"You know your multiplication tables?"

Percy's face was turning red. "Up to ten, yes," he said shakily.

"You know phonetics?" Annabeth tested him.

Percy blinked. "What about a phoenix?"

Annabeth shook her head, smiling a little. "No, Seaweed Brain. _Pho-net-ics_. Not phoenix. It's how you sound out words. You can also use it to help you spell."

"Oh." Percy paused. "I still haven't got a clue what it is."

Annabeth groaned. "It's the scientific study of speech sounds and how they are produced."

Percy held up his hands, laughing. "Assuming we both make it back to Camp, please teach it to me there, not while we're balancing hazardously on a moving beam, okay?"

Annabeth's face hardened. "You think that we're all going to make it, don't you?"

Percy looked at her, unbothered by her tone. "Yeah. I do, actually. We might not all go back to Camp, but we'll make it out alive."

"Do you know how _unlikely_ that is?!" Annabeth yelled at him. "You're getting your hopes up for nothing!"

"In my experiences, levity and skill have one-upped death multiple times," Percy said calmly.

Annabeth stopped dead, both surprised at his statement and surprised that he—he had a first-grade education, damnit!—knew a word like _levity_. "Since when does _humor_ come into the equation?!"

Percy smiled mischievously. "Because the enemy has the same reaction as you do: complete shock that I'm joking around when I'm about to die. Or, they take it as mocking, and then they get angry, and their anger messes them up. Arrogance doesn't work all that great with monsters, either. It's the smart ones that you have to watch out for."

Annabeth stared at him in disbelief. "I have _never_ met an intelligent monster. That is just an oxymoron."

"I thought so too, until Thalia, Jason, and I got chased halfway across the country by said smart monster," Percy told her dryly.

Annabeth stared at him in disbelief. He nearly fell off the train, he was laughing so hard.

* * *

 

Percy woke to hitting a swaying floor. Then he heard Thalia shriek. "Gods, Thalia," he groaned.

"I thought Annabeth stopped perching precariously on that lock, now I find that she influenced you to do it too!" Thalia yelled at the pair of them. Percy, from his view from the floor, exchanged an amused glance with Annabeth.

"Technically, we're on the safest spot on the train," Annabeth pointed out. "There is literally no way someone can sneak up on us, and therefore, we don't get killed."

"Thalia, chill out. I've been in more unsteady positions before," Percy said dryly from the floor. "Calm down, mother bear."

Thalia calmed down a little, but she still looked fuming.

"Oh, come _on_ , Thalia, that isn't nearly as bad as the pegasus," Percy said, annoyed. "Or even that encounter with those gorgons."

Thalia glared at him. "Well I'm _sorry_ if I thought that it was supposed to be me and Jason in the air with you safely _out_ of Zeus's domain!"

"Jason was out of it, you'd just gotten slammed into a wall, and our temporary ally was battling that thing alone. I saw an opening, I took it. End of story," Percy said crisply.

Thalia threw up her hands. "You literally jumped onto a pegasus's rear, and when it bucked, you jumped, so you went flying! Zeus could've killed you a dozen times over with that foolish move, never mind the gorgons!"

"Contrary to popular belief, the gods don't normally stalk their children," Percy said dryly. "Or even their rivals' children."

"Yeah, well, you, me, and Jason aren't exactly _normal_ ," Thalia told him.

"Thank you, for that information!" Percy said cheerfully. "I never would have guessed!"

Annabeth was simply watching the two argue.

"And then that stunt with the gorgons—!" Thalia groaned.

Percy laughed. "C'mon, Thalia, that was fun. Admit it."

"We were on a direct collision course for a four-lane freeway!" Thalia yelled at him. "I don't consider that _fun_!"

"'Stupid sixteen-year-old falling from the sky! I'm late!'" Percy mimicked a taxi driver's voice. "Oh, I'm sorry, does that only happen in movies?"

"Our freaking _life_ should be a movie," Thalia grumbled. "It isn't supposed to exist!"

"What happened with the gorgons?" Annabeth asked, curious. The wind whipped her hair into a tangled frenzy.

Percy gave her a mischievous grin. "We surfed them."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Somehow Percy got onto the back of one while it was in mid-flight," Thalia explained angrily. "Next thing I know, I'm on the back of the other one, yelling at Percy to get off."

"You're going to do one of those stunts and get killed, Percy, and I'm going to stand there and call you a Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said calmly.

"See?!" Percy said, gesturing at Annabeth. "She knows that I'm going to do them anyway, despite anything that you say!"

"Why can't you just let it alone and let Jason and I do the aerial stunts?!" Thalia yelled at him.

"Because half the time Jason is occupied or unconscious, you prefer staying on the ground anyway, and besides, any more storm calling and I'm just going to summon a twister to keep me aloft," Percy snapped.

"And have you pass out for two days straight?!" Annabeth exclaimed. "You drool in your sleep, Seaweed Brain! _And_ you kicked me!"

"You probably deserved the kick," Percy told her.

"I was giving you nectar!" Annabeth defended.

"And if I have too much, I'll burn up," Percy said dryly. "Besides, it would've worked faster if you'd just dumped water over me instead of giving me nectar."

"Oh, _shut up_ , already," Phoebe snapped from one of the bunks inside the car. "Unlike you, Thalia, some of us stayed up to make sure we wouldn't be ambushed by who-knows-what."

Percy froze, his eyes glued to the security mirror. "Thalia?"

Thalia seemed to realize something was up. "Yeah?"

"It's a who. Not a what. Remember those purple people from when I was seven?"

Thalia swore violently. "They're on the train?"

Percy gulped. "They're in the car."

The daughter of Zeus whipped around, her bow and quiver instantly at hand. She nocked an arrow about the same time that the Romans drew their weapons.

"Phoebe," Thalia said tightly. "Get out."

The huntress looked at Thalia incredulously. "But—"

"Get. Out. Go with Annabeth. It's us they want."

"Hey, now, what makes you think that I'm just going to leave—" Annabeth protested.

"You can either leave of your own free will or you can get booted out of a window," Thalia said calmly. "Your choice."

Apprehensively, Phoebe and Annabeth left. The car door slid shut.

"Why are you here?" one of them asked icily.

"I'm sorry, we were just on a quest for the gods. I didn't realize that this train was already taken," Thalia said coolly, her arrow never wavering.

"It's been six years since you've been last seen," another said. "Almost like you've been avoiding us."

"We have been," Percy said flatly. "We haven't set foot in California since then."

"Nor most of Nevada," Thalia added.

"Well, we did, actually, but that was by mistake," Percy said.

One of them nodded to where Phoebe had been sleeping. "Who were they?"

"Hunters of Diana," Thalia said icily. "Probably don't want to mess with them."

They began to mutter amongst themselves.

"Where's the other one?" the first one that spoke asked brusquely.

Percy began to laugh.

"Right here," Jason said from behind the Romans, opening the car door. They jumped and spun around to see Jason with his sword drawn, Bianca behind him with her hands wreathed in hellfire, and Nico finally using his powers next to his sister (even if it was unintentional) and drawing all the shadows in the room towards him, creating a weird effect. "Sorry, didn't mean to crash the party," Jason said cheekily. "But I thought all of you might want to know who you're dealing with."

"Thalia Grace, daughter of Jupiter, but most of you already know that," Thalia said calmly, a small smile gracing her face.

"Percy Jackson, son of Neptune," Percy said, a wide grin on his face. "And now I'm not an untrained seven-year-old."

"Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, full-blooded brother to Thalia," Jason said cheekily.

"Bianca di Angelo," Bianca said with a sardonic smirk on her face. "Daughter of Pluto."

"Nico di Angelo," Nico said with a grin to match Percy's. "Son of Pluto, full-blooded brother to Bianca."

Jason's mischievous grin stretched even further. "You are facing at least one child of all of the Elder Three, all of whom have been on their own for a while now, all of whom have been trained to not only fight, but _survive_."

"If I were facing those odds, I'd back down, even though you outnumber us," Percy said. "Because all of us are willing to pull some extreme stunts."

"He has _pulled_ extreme stunts that have scared the crap out of me, so it should definitely scare you people," Thalia said dryly.

" _Enough_!" one of them roared. "You're coming with us!"

Thalia let loose her arrow. It zoomed by his helmet, missing my a hair's breadth, missed three people behind him with less than a centimeter to spare, and embedded itself four inches into the wall. She readjusted her position, nocking another arrow. "Warning shot fired," she said monotonously.

The Romans had frozen from the accuracy of her shot.

Bianca's flames rose higher. Nico's shadows coalesced into something pointy, his adrenaline probably peaking. Jason had sparks running off of his bare arms. Thalia's arrow was charged with electricity. Percy had water from who-knows-where curling around his forearms, almost like a living creature. You could cut the tension in the room with a pair of those stupid plastic safety scissors.

"Well?" Thalia asked quietly, steel laced in her voice.

"Stand down," the apparently leader said reluctantly.

Thalia nodded. "Jason, Bianca, Nico, let them pass back to wherever they came from."

"And if they attack?" Jason asked coolly.

"You are welcome to use full force," Thalia said. One of the Romans blinked, imagining what 'full force' might be.

Jason nodded and stepped aside. Nico and Bianca followed his lead. The Romans filed out of the car.

Percy slid the car door shut noisily, and then ran to the other end and opened the door on that end. He came face-to-face with Annabeth, who had her arms crossed and her expression clearly demanding an explanation. Phoebe stood behind her in the car behind them, along with Zoë, Luke, and Grover, all wearing expressions that varied from curious to wary to demanding an explanation.

"You're Roman?" Annabeth asked dangerously.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Honestly, do I look Roman? Do I look like I have the patience for pointless drills and marching? Do I even _act_ Roman?"

Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "How should I know? I don't know what Romans do in the 21st century."

Thalia shrugged. "Fair point."

"You've been to Cali before?" Annabeth interrogated.

"Twice," the original three chorused. "Not only did we get attacked by a small army of monsters the first time we were there, but we also encountered them," Thalia added dryly.

"You knew about Mount Tam, so why did you go there?" Annabeth asked.

Jason shrugged. "Cabin fever. We tend to get distracted and follow the yellow brick road."

Percy rolled his eyes. "More like the dirt brown deer path."

Annabeth studied them all critically. "So who's the Roman?"

Jason's hand shot up childishly while everyone else pointed at him.

Annabeth's eyebrow rose. "Why do I not believe that?"

"Because he's grown up around Greek influence?" Thalia suggested. "And that Percy and Jason have some really childish habits?"

"Hey!"

"You're the one who still takes pictures of me lighting fires," Thalia told Percy dryly. "And you're the one who likes to rig zip lines into the nearest body of water and dare Percy that he can't make a bigger splash than you. And you're talking to a _son of Poseidon_ ," Thalia said exasperatedly to her brother.

Annabeth facepalmed. Phoebe groaned at Jason's idiocy.

"So yeah, I can see why you can't see Jason as a Roman," Thalia concluded.

"Annnd _how_ long have you known this?" Annabeth asked.

Thalia looked at Jason, thinking. "Since he was two?"

"Annnnd _why_ didn't you tell us about this?" Annabeth asked.

Percy started laughing. Jason was trying to futilely suppress a wide smile. Thalia bit her lip. Bianca frowned. Nico's lips twitched, mirth lighting his dark eyes.

"Oh, I don't know," Jason said sarcastically. "Maybe because the last time the Greeks and Romans met on a mass scale, the Civil War broke out."

"Demigods slaughtered each other. Sibling set against sibling," Bianca said softly.

"Why did you think that we made you leave?" Thalia asked. "You alone, Annabeth, would have started another war if you had said that you were a daughter of Athena."

"Minerva doesn't have children," Nico informed her.

"Minerva isn't even a war goddess," Jason added.

"And the name Athena is taboo to Romans," Percy finished.

The daughter of Athena looked dumbfounded.

"Plus, you would've given us away if you had stayed," Bianca pointed out. "And then war really would have started."

Annabeth looked affronted. "You could've given me some sort of signal!"

"All signals that I know are exclusive to this group and not to mention extremely subtle," Thalia said flatly. "And I refuse to teach you our language."

"And why not?" Annabeth demanded.

" _Maybe_ because you have a _spy_ at your camp, Annabeth," Percy snapped, good humor gone. "Maybe more than one."

"If you go around, teaching it to the camp, then we lose our element of surprise. Morse code was the code for sending secret messages two hundred and fifty years ago, no? Now everyone knows what it is, anyone can translate it, and it's used for fun. In this upcoming war, if Kronos really is rising, if he really is summoning his brothers and sisters from the Pit, and we are to participate in this war, then we're going to need every bit of surprise, luck, and skill on our side to win," Thalia said quietly.

"Hey, they aren't the only ones that knew," Phoebe defended.

Annabeth turned around, disbelief written all over her face. "So anyone who is in a small group knows about this, and yet the whole of Camp Half-Blood and whatever Roman thing there is remains ignorant?!"

Zoë frowned at her. "The Greeks and Romans are tied together, Annabeth, whether or not they like it. The Hunters of Artemis know because several of us remember the Civil War."

"Latin is hardwired into Greek demigods just as much as Greek is hardwired into Roman demigods," Jason said dryly. "How do you think we're able to pass off as Greek or Roman at will?"

"Latin doesn't come as naturally to Greeks as Greek does," Annabeth said flatly.

Thalia arched a dark eyebrow at her. "Then explain to me why Percy told Alecto to eat his pants when the Furies attacked the bus we were on?"

" _Esu mea braccae_ ," Percy told Jason. Jason bit his lip to keep from laughing.

" _Vos sunt_ ," Jason told him.

" _Gratias_!" Percy thanked him cheerfully.

"She is not eating your pants so that she can explain," Thalia said, exasperated. "And I agree, Jason, he is weird."

Bianca thudded her head against the wall. " _Habes mortem optare_ ," she groaned.

" _Non, non facio_ ," Percy protested.

"Uh, yeah, _facitis_ ," Thalia said, annoyed.

Nico nodded in agreement. Jason shrugged in a _what can you do?_ kind of way.

Zoë arched an eyebrow. "Are all of thee arguing about _this_?"

Thalia shrugged. "What do you expect us to argue about? The Romans already know of us. They already know about the Hunters of Diana. I don't see what the problem is."

"They have encountered Greek demigods," Zoë pointed out, irritated.

"They don't know that they have encountered Greek demigods," Thalia countered.

"They will grow suspicious on why thee are avoiding them like plague," Zoë said, arching an eyebrow, as if daring her to counter that.

"They already do," Thalia said evenly. "If this afternoon's accounts say anything. They weren't this pushy before."

Zoë's eyes narrowed. "You are meddling with things that should not be meddled in."

Thalia and Jason burst into laughter. "I've been meddling since Jason was two and I threatened Hera with dismemberment if she took Jason like she was planning."

Everyone that wasn't a Big Three kid went white.

"How did you—" Annabeth gaped.

"At the time, everyone thought that I was the prophecy child," Thalia smoothly cut her off. "I told her that if she took Jason I would happily raze Olympus to get him back."

"You couldn't have done that then," Luke said doubtfully, still recovering from Thalia's blatant threat to the Queen of the Gods.

Thalia smiled, no happiness or mirth in her eyes. "You just echoed Hera. And I will echo myself: Maybe not then. But give it some six years of surviving on my own, with nothing but hatred for the gods boiling up in me, my control over my powers developing by leaps and bounds. I would have sought out gods and asked them where the Roman camp was, and if they wouldn't answer me, I would have shocked them with increasing voltage until they would have told me. And if I couldn't beat them, then I would escape, and find a lesser god who knew the location, and then I would repeat the process, until I was reunited with my baby brother, and then I would seek out Hera, even if she hid in the depths of the place I would have hated most, and then I would inflict all the pain that she would have inflicted upon me all those years, separate from my baby brother. Can you imagine, Luke? Jason, the very person that I kept my sanity to myself for, taken away from me in the worst possible way… Can you imagine? Why should I have love for the gods when they are willing to take such a risk to trigger the prophecy and yet prevent a Civil War? What is worse, the destruction of the gods, or the destruction of the demigods? Can't you see? They are intertwined. We are an endangered race, and yet they rely on us…doesn't work out for them, does it? If we die, they're destroyed. If they are destroyed and the demigods are somehow still living, then we'll eventually die out as well. That's the flaw in Ethan's reasoning, as well as bargaining with something that will kill him as soon as Ethan relaxes too much."

Everyone stared at Thalia, in shock.

Percy finally shrugged. "I can't blame her."

Annabeth sputtered out of her shock. "You _can't blame her_?! She's talking about—"

"—what she would've done if Hera had gone through with her plan," Percy pointed out.

"—treason," Annabeth finished breathlessly. "Murder! Scourge of the gods! Defacing them!"

Percy rolled his eyes. "And _how_ many times did you, Clarisse, Luke, and Ethan curse the gods for not being there for us? If Athena had been around you your entire life, would you have run away? If Ares intervened before Clarisse's mother practically locked her up, would she have been plunged into the cruel world of demigods at a young age? If Hermes had been around, would he have done something to prevent Luke from running away? What would've happened if Ethan had even gotten some recognition, a claiming? We _still_ don't know his parentage, so he could one-up us right there. Tell me, Annabeth, that you have never cursed the gods for existing, for existing and yet not being there for their own children, for being a demigod."

Annabeth hesitated.

"Thank you," Percy said with finality.

"And besides, Thalia isn't leading us," Jason pointed out.

They all looked at him, confused. He shrugged. "Annabeth called Sis a scourge of the gods…and yet it was Percy that the Oracle gave the prophecy to. So really, if anyone, it's Percy who leads us, not Thalia, and Percy isn't a scourge of Olympus, so it must be someone we haven't met yet, or there's a traitor among us."

Percy's heart sank as everyone eyed each other distrustfully.

* * *

 

"How do you do it?"

Two fairly uneventful days on the train had passed, other than Nico accidentally and literally running into one of the Romans, who promptly tried to kick him across the room out of sheer alarm. Key word: tried. Nico, though winded from ramming against the Roman's armor, neatly sidestepped the kick and disappeared into the Roman's shadow.

The Roman's face had been priceless.

Now Percy was getting ready to get off the train, in Arizona, and Luke asked him how he did it.

"Do what?" Percy asked, turning to face the older man.

Luke shrugged awkwardly. "Insult the gods so nonchalantly. Fight so well when you're hardly thirteen. Survive insane stunts that would kill even the hardiest person. Keep major secrets hidden that well for so long. How do you keep up with all of it?"

Percy laughed. "You get used to it. And it isn't like it came all at once."

"What else aren't you telling us?" Luke asked resignedly.

Percy chuckled. "A lot. You of all people should know that you find out a lot when you're on the run."

Luke shrugged. Then he sat up, asking, "Hey, how did you—"

"Annabeth told me," Percy cut him off.

Luke frowned at him. "You don't even know what I was going to ask."

"Yeah, I do. You were going to ask how I knew that you had run away."

Luke frowned at the son of the sea again, but stayed quiet this time.

"Hey, man, we don't keep secrets because we think it's fun," Percy told him, packing his bag. "Even though it was rather entertaining to see Annabeth with smoke coming out of her ears."

"Brave soul," Luke muttered. "Most back off if Annabeth's mad."

Percy snickered. "Had I been untrained when I first met her, yes, I would have been scared of her. But I was not, and Annabeth is a candle flame compared to Thalia's roaring bonfire when she's mad, so I kind of find Annabeth funny."

"Annabeth wouldn't appreciate that," Luke warned.

"I find her scarier when her mind isn't clouded with fear or anger," Percy told him. "I watched her build a bomb when she was bored out of coffee, a bent pie tin, and flower fertilizer."

Luke started laughing at Percy's slightly alarmed face. "Yeah, that sounds like something she would do."

"Wonderful," Percy muttered.

Nico appeared into the car from the shadows, dragging his sister with him. "Next time, try not to light the place up halfway through," he told her.

Percy covered his mouth, his shoulders shaking. One of Luke's eyebrows was raised.

"Hi, Percy," Bianca said dryly. "Hello, Luke."

Nico whirled around, saw the two of them, and smiled sheepishly. "Hi, guys."

"Hey," Percy greeted them, managing to stifle his laughter. "Um, how's that going for you?" He made a gesture at his shadow.

"Bianca keeps trying to light the place up," Nico grumbled, yawning.

Bianca gave him a sheepish smile. "I don't think shadow traveling is for me, Nick," she said.

"Later on, you'll be able to shadow travel, and Nico will be able to light himself up, probably," Percy guessed. "As you get older, your powers keep coming out."

Nico bounced up and down. "Really?!"

Percy shrugged, laughing at Nico's enthusiasm. "Maybe. That's what I did, that's what Jason did, and that's what Thalia did. Jason was able to fly at six, Thalia managed to do it at sixteen. Jason created a tiny tornado at five, I made an itty-bitty hurricane at seven. So…"

"You can make a tiny tornado?" Luke said, flabbergasted. "I thought that was just Zeus's kids."

Percy shrugged. "That's a secret exclusive to the Big Three kids only, Luke. But if you ever see all five of us fight together, with powers, you'll probably be able to guess."

Nico grinned and Bianca smiled smugly. Percy was smirking a little. He held out his hand and the wind picked up, swirling around a central point somewhere on Percy, and all of a sudden a little tiny twister was quite visible, dancing across Percy's palm. He made a fist, and a gust of wind blasted them all back a step as the tornado broke apart.

Luke looked a bit stunned.

"But honestly, you saw him and Jason make that huge storm," Nico pointed out. "Why would a tornado surprise you?"

"Tornadoes are spawned by hurricanes," Bianca said.

"And he's made a hurricane before," Jason said, sliding the car door closed. "So have I, actually. You know, son of the Stormbringer and all that."

"It was a tiny one," Percy said.

"No, the other one," Jason said, impatiently.

"That was still quite small," Percy told him.

"You captured—" Jason glanced at Luke and shut his mouth. "Put it this way—you were the trigger for that one."

Percy shrugged helplessly. "I didn't even mean to."

"But you did," Jason pointed out. "You were nine, you were by yourself, we were unconscious, and our ally was the only one you had for back up. And you managed to take us with you. By all rights, that should've been impossible. By all rights, you should've died. We all should have."

"Wait, so how did you know he did whatever he did if you were unconscious?" Luke questioned. He was ignored.

"I was desperate, I didn't mean to do it!" Percy protested.

Jason walked over and jabbed a finger into his chest. "Well, guess what. You did. And we can do it again."

"We have to," Percy pointed out. "If we want to get Clarisse and Artemis back."

"Without the desperation," Jason said, exasperated. "You won't be on your own again."

"I wasn't on my own," Percy challenged.

Jason threw up his hands. "He doesn't count!"

"Oh, yes, he does," Percy said firmly. "He nearly got himself killed in that encounter, trying to buy me some time."

Jason looked like he'd been slapped. Percy raised a challenging eyebrow. "Just because he's a legacy doesn't mean he's not the best swordsman in the past millennium. You need to get out of that mindset, Air Head. No, I was not alone, in either sense."

"He still surpasses him?!" Jason said.

"He's a legacy going up to a Titan, what do _you_ think?" Percy spat. "I have a great deal of respect for him, but he was foolish to go up against him."

Jason looked grim. "Do you think we need to call him?"

Percy shook his head slowly. "We have more, and we have the advantage, even if we are outnumbered."

"How on _earth_ can you have the advantage if you're outnumbered?" Luke asked, bewildered beyond belief. He was ignored again.

"I don't think we're practiced enough," Jason said hesitantly. "And we have no idea what the extent of their power is."

Percy gave a bitter chuckle. "Fortunately, life-threatening experiences tend to bring out those powers."

"But we'll—"

"Jason," Percy said patiently.

Jason stopped. "Yeah?"

"What did you do at Thalia's side for years?"

Jason glared at his friend. Then he sighed. "Okay. Whatever."

"Hey, it got me through the first encounter, and I didn't even know I did it," Percy said. "I think we'll be just fine through this."

The cousins looked grim. "I hope you're right, Percy," Jason said finally.

* * *

 

Annabeth marched past the group confidently.

"Hey, where are you going?" Thalia called.

"The road we need is on the other side," she said, pointing. "And since this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I'm visiting Hoover Dam."

Most of them looked a little bit startled. "You're _sightseeing_?" Jason finally had to ask.

Annabeth looked back at the bunch. "Well? Are you coming or not?"

All of them exchanged looks. "C'mon," Luke said finally. "At least we'll be there to drag her out."

Half an hour later, the ten of them stood at the entrance to the structure.

"Seven hundred feet tall," Annabeth said critically. "Built in the 1930s."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Five million cubic acres of water."

Grover sighed. "Largest construction project in the United States."

"Exactly," Annabeth said, looking at the two with approval. "You do listen."

Faintly, Percy heard Grover mutter, "Sometimes." Percy began to laugh.

Annabeth arched an eyebrow at the son of Poseidon. "Something funny?"

"Oh yeah," he said. "That was choreographed, wasn't it?"

"No," the three said simultaneously. They looked at each other. "Annabeth has a bad habit of spouting off random facts when she's mad, thinking, or apprehensive," Luke explained.

"You tend to pick up a lot of crazy fun facts," Grover told the rest of them. " _Slang_ is slang for 'short language'."

"The expression 'the whole nine yards' originates from when women made those heavy, old fashioned dresses. Each dress was made from nine yards of fabric," Luke supplied.

"The word _gossip_ originates when powerful people would tell their servants or whoever they employed to _go sip_ at the local café or what-have-you and eavesdrop on other conversations," Annabeth said.

"Like that," Luke agreed. "I haven't heard that one before, Annabeth."

The Big Three group looked a little bit weirded out.

"Come," Zoë finally said. "If we are to be here, we might as well eat. Let us find the dam snack bar."

Thalia covered her mouth, her eyes alight with mirth.

"Can I get a dam t-shirt as well?" Percy asked innocently.

"And visit the dam water fountain?" Jason added, futilely suppressing a grin.

"Could we get some dam French fries while we're at it?" Grover said.

They started busting up laughing. Zoë looked utterly confused. "What is funny?"

"Do—do they sell some dam books for Annabeth?" Thalia stuttered out.

"Like, _Random Dam Facts_ ," Luke joined in.

"I'm sure she would dam well appreciate that," Bianca couldn't resist.

Phoebe groaned, getting the joke. "Come _on_."

"Moooo."

Percy stopped laughing. "Did you hear that? It sounded like a cow."

"A dam cow?" Annabeth arched an eyebrow, smiling. "I don't think a cow has taken up residence in the dam, Seaweed Brain."

Phoebe restored order and dragged most of them through the door without Zoë making an unintended joke.

Annabeth arched an eyebrow. "You coming?"

"You go on ahead," Percy said hesitantly. "I'll catch up."

Annabeth stared at him. "One day you'll have to teach me that trick."

Then she turned on her heel and marched into the dam.

Percy ran to the edge and looked down. "What are you _doing_ here?" he asked the sea-serpent-slash-cow-thing.

"Moooo."

"Oh please," Percy growled, frustrated that he didn't speak Cow. "How did you even _find_ me?!"

"Mooo."

"That's _really_ helpful," Percy muttered to himself. "Go back to your nest," he urged. "It isn't safe for you!"

"Mooooo."

"Go on," Percy said, waving his hands at the cow, feeling like an idiot.

It disappeared into the depths.

Percy ran to catch up with his fellow questers.

Halfway to the snack bar, he slammed into someone. "Hey! Watch where you're going, you great lumbering oaf!"

Percy tripped, trying to get away from whoever he'd just run into, fell, turned the impact into a backwards somersault, and came up kneeling with his pen in hand.

The redhead mortal he'd just run into took a step back, her eyes wide. She was staring at the pen he was clutching in his right hand. "Why is it…"

Her voice died, and she looked at Percy, and then behind him. "You've got…something on your tail…"

She seemed a bit too much in shock, like she was walking through a living nightmare, not like she'd just seen someone with inhuman reflexes. Percy whipped around and immediately started swearing.

Hoover Dam was a trap. For everyone one tourist there were five monsters.

"I can't have a showdown in here!" Percy groaned, looking at the short ceilings.

"A _showdown_?" the tourist demanded. "Oh, please. And put the sword away, I highly doubt that will get you anywhere fast."

Percy turned back to the mortal, dumbfounded. "How did you— You're a mortal— Who are you?!"

The redhead huffed. "A better question would be, who are _you_? You're the first person I've met that can see those things, and trust me, I've met a lot of people—"

"Percy!" Nico yelled. "Get out of the dam!"

"I'll work on that," Percy yelled back, not taking his eyes off of the mortal. "Look, I don't know who you are, or how you can see through the Mist, but stay _inside_ the dam. It's the safest place for you right now, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, he darted towards the exit.

* * *

 

When Percy finally got out of the dam, he was greeted with absolute havoc. He stared in shock at the sheer number of monsters.

"I don't know about you, but I don't think that it's possible to get out of this one alive," someone said behind him.

"I told you to stay in the dam!" Percy told her.

"That place is brimming with monsters," she pointed out.

"Not for long," Percy said grimly. "They'll join their comrades out here."

"I can help!" she insisted.

Percy pinned her with a stare. "No, you can't. This goes beyond you. Since you're probably too hard-headed to go back into the dam, then at least _stay here_ , while they're occupied with us, okay?"

Then he shot out of his hiding spot with a sound like thunder, leaping impossibly high, grey wisps of something coalescing around him in a swirling pattern. Percy landed straight on the back of a monster, who stumbled from Percy's unexpected weight and fell, crushing two of his fellow monsters. Percy sliced him in half with his Celestial bronze sword, flipping so that he didn't have to halt the sword's momentum, changed the direction of the sword fractionally, and sliced through another two monsters as if it were a hot knife through butter.

All this happened in under three seconds, and the mortal Percy had left behind stood in their temporary hiding place, in shock.

Percy ducked under one monster's strike and dealt a deadly blow to another, slicing through the one who struck at him, weaving his way through the crowd of monsters, leaving a glittering golden trail behind him.

From the center of the crowd of monsters, a body shot upwards, towards the sky, seemingly hovered, and then plunged to the ground in a steep dive, aiming straight for Percy.

He slammed into the ground with enough force to dent the earth's crust.

"Oh, get up, Thor," Percy joked, slicing through a monster who had yet to recover from the shaking earth. "Jeez, you inherited your father's drama."

"Not my fault that you were about to be overwhelmed," Jason replied, standing back-to-back with Percy.

"So, cousin," Percy began conversationally. "Shall we begin?"

Jason grinned, even though Percy couldn't see it. "We shall."

The grey wisps revolving around Percy now solidified into true storm clouds, forming a column around the two boys thick with moisture and high-speed winds, an intricate spiral swirling about the top of the column in a symbol that prophesized destruction, expanding into a radius of thirty-five feet. Lightning crackled in the clouds, and with a deafening _boom_ , it began to pour.

"I have to admit, I'm loving the adrenaline rush," Jason yelled over the thunder.

"I don't think either of us will appreciate the aftereffects," Percy pointed out wryly.

"This is like the second time in as many weeks that we've made a large storm," Jason laughed.

"Other one was bigger," Percy disagreed. Winds buffeted the landscape, but allies and the mortal Percy was trying to protect were unaffected.

The first tornado appeared. It raged without apparent purpose, but it swept up monsters and dusted them, carving a path of destruction in the already ravaged army of monsters.

Then it began to grow larger, fueled by an unseen source, and began to circle in a spiral, around an unseen point. The circles grew smaller and smaller, until the tornado broke formation and gusted out over the rocky ground, flattening monsters and dispersing.

The storm broke. The remaining monsters were fleeing.

"Go back to the others," Percy told Jason. "I have an annoying mortal who, I hope, had enough sense to stay in hiding."

Jason nodded and took a running start before launching himself into the air.

Percy walked over to his former hiding place, a scowl on his face.

"What _are_ you?" the redhead demanded. "A god? A mutant? No human could do that much destruction with only a _sword_!"

Percy looked at her. "There is no destruction," he said.

As he said that, the crater that Jason had made popped back into place like nothing happened.

"We're very careful to cover our tracks," Percy continued. "No doubt the media will be out here, speculating about UFOs and whatnot, but we'll be long gone. And no one will believe you if you tell them, so I wouldn't recommend that."

" _We_?!"

Percy smiled at her. "Yes, _we_. Look, I admire you for coming out here, and I'm sorry that no one will ever believe you unless you manage to find the right people, but try not to get killed for the next couple of weeks, okay? You see those monsters—run. You just had some serious power going around you, the monsters might think you're one of us until the smell of yummy demigod food fades, which should take a week or two."

"But I didn't—"

"I didn't want you to be straining against the winds Jason and I were making," Percy explained. "So I had to curve the winds around you. I'm just thankful you stayed in one spot."

"You honestly think I could've moved while a seeming _human_ was creating a freaking _hurricane_?!" the redhead yelled. "Of course I wouldn't have moved! I was practically rooted to the ground in shock!"

Percy shrugged. "I told you to stay in the dam."

There was movement behind Percy. The mortal stared as uprooted plants plopped themselves back into the ground again. One saguaro cactus planted itself into a hole, then seemingly changed its mind and switched spots with two-foot-high pear cactus.

While Rachel was distracted, Percy had jogged off. As he ran, he flicked his hand at the ground, and all of a sudden it looked cracked, like no one had stepped on the area or had wind stirring it or rain pounding on it in a century. Exactly like it should be, with even the scuffed path from Hoover Dam to the parking lot. The water got thrown into the Colorado River.

Percy leaped onto the bed of a truck Zoë had rented.

"Did you take care of it?" Jason asked.

"I have no idea how to handle shocked, demanding mortal girls," Percy admitted. Jason cringed a little. "Especially ones who think I'm either a god or a mutant alien," Percy added. Jason busted up laughing. Both boys yawned simultaneously.

"Don't mind me, I'm just going to pass out over here," Percy told Jason.

Luke and Annabeth exchanged surprised glances. Two weeks ago, it took the three of them three days to recover. Now they were just a little sleepy.

Annabeth leaned forward to look at Thalia in the passenger's seat. She was already sleeping soundly.

Luke swiveled around to look at Nico and Bianca in the bed of the truck. Sure enough, they were passed out as well.

"They are Big Three children," Phoebe pointed out.

"But…" Luke said quietly.

"Nico and Bianca didn't do anything with their powers," Annabeth finished his thought. "Why would they be tired out?"


	6. Atlas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything goes to Hades, and the gods are not appreciative. (Of course they aren't.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the consistently late updates. I went from on vacation to pneumonia. :'( Tis the season, y'all. Cheers.  
> -Ruby

The woman pursed her lips as she leaned against a pillar. She wore a casual cream sweater and dark jeans with sturdy and yet stylish boots, with a thick belt going through her jeans' belt loops, suitable for holding weapons, and a heavy, smoky grey, hooded cloak lined with soft fur. She was tall, willowy, even, and yet her muscles were clearly defined, letting anyone know that she was a formidable opponent. Her curly black hair tumbled down her neck and disappeared into the folds of her cloak's hood. She had intimidating grey eyes, as if she were analyzing every move you were making, and how she would take you down, based on those moves.

"What do you want, Athena?"

She stayed silent for a moment. "You were always the most caring of your children, Poseidon. He has done more than most of your sons could hope for at the mere age of nine, you have every reason to be proud of him. So why does Perseus respect me more than he does you?"

The man shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "He wishes to see me, and I _am_ proud of him."

"He wants a father figure," Athena corrected. "The vile man he used to call a step-father was not suitable, and he is not around Chiron enough to consider him a father like Annabeth does. Neither Jason nor Nico are older than Percy—and thus, he considers them to be like brothers."

"I cannot provide him with a father figure," Poseidon said gruffly. "Because of that stupid rule, I can hardly guide him towards people who would take care of him, much less let him live in the sea with me, nor would he want to."

"There are always loopholes," Athena said steadily. "Zeus said that the gods were not to directly interfere with quests or daily lives of the half-bloods."

Poseidon hesitated. "Is that a direct quote?"

"You weren't there when Zeus decreed that rule, were you?" Athena questioned.

Poseidon shook his head. "I was watching over my last demigod daughter, Mira."

A grimace crossed Athena's face, quick enough that it one would not be able to see it unless one were looking for it. "Yes, that was a direct quote."

Poseidon scowled. "Apollo just said that we weren't allowed to interfere with our demigod children. Admittedly, he was extremely dejected, but still…"

Athena smiled, though Poseidon couldn't see. "Now you see."

The broad-shouldered man turned, letting anyone in the entrance see a glimpse of his sea-green eyes, identical to his son's. He had turned to thank his rival (something that he was reluctant to do, definitely), but Athena was already gone from the Temple of Poseidon.

Poseidon turned back around with a furious passion, determined to do something to help with the quest. His niece was missing, his nephew was going to the ends of the earth to help the questers find his twin sister, and by Zeus, Poseidon would not be dissuaded.

Not again.

* * *

 

By the time the questers reached Mount Tamalpias—better known as Mount Othyrus—another day had passed, bathing the sky with reds and purples of the sunset.

Between Nico, Thalia, and Jason, the group of ten managed to get by the Garden of the Hesperides without too much trouble from Ladon and the Hesperides themselves.

"I don't like this," Percy murmured.

"It's too quiet," Jason agreed.

They had reached the top of the summit to find Artemis unguarded and Clarisse semi-unconscious.

"Go free Clarisse and Artemis," Percy told Luke. "We'll cover you."

"Wait—don't!" Annabeth cried. "It's a trap!"

" _Obviously_ ," Thalia said, rolling her eyes. "But if we just stand around here like a gaggle of idiots, nothing will happen, and nothing will get done."

"It's the Winter Solstice," Luke said. "Artemis is a key goddess who has been voting constantly for doing something against Kronos. If we don't get Artemis to the Winter Solstice, nothing will get done for another six months, and then it might be too late."

There was a laugh from the opposite direction of where everyone was looking. "How true!"

The Big Three kids instinctively fell into formation: Thalia in front, Jason and Percy on her right and left, Nico and Bianca behind them, forming a pentagon. Zoë and Phoebe were instantly in front of their mistress, their bows drawn and arrows nocked. Annabeth, Luke, and Grover surrounded Clarisse's semi-conscious form.

A silver-haired man stepped into view from the shadows. How he was able to hide his bulk, no one knew. Behind him stood two _dracaenae_ carrying a sarcophagus. Beside the silver-haired man stood someone the majority of them didn't know, but Annabeth solved the question almost immediately. "Ethan," she spat out.

"Ethan? Like, the guy who's raising Kronos, Ethan?" Percy questioned.

The silver-haired man glanced at Percy, and then did a double take. Percy grinned. "Hi, Atlas. Nice to see that we can do a rematch. Maybe this time you'll even win."

Campers, Hunters and enemies alike all gasped and whipped their heads towards the son of the sea. "Is he _mad_?!" Phoebe yelped.

Atlas's eyes glowed with fury. "You insolent little whelp," he growled.

"Sorry, I thought I was part _kelp_ ," Percy said, goading the Titan. "I don't know if there's an underwater plant species that's called a whelp."

" _Whelp_ is another name for a newborn puppy or cub," Annabeth muttered nervously. "Used most often as a disparaging form of address to a disobedient young man in the 1800s."

Percy chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not a newborn puppy. A disobedient young man, maybe, depending on who you talk to. You, I never obeyed in the first place, so I really can't disobey someone who I never obeyed in the first place…?"

Annabeth resisted the urge to smack her forehead.

With difficultly, Atlas turned to Zoë. "Zoë, my little traitor. I will enjoy killing you."

"You won't kill her," Percy spoke up, an eyebrow cocked and his voice light and lilting with challenge.

"You won't interfere, demigod," Atlas said. "This is a familial matter."

Percy blinked, not expecting that. "Familial?"

Zoë's voice was bleak. "Yes. Atlas is my father."

* * *

 

"You're the lost Hesperide," Annabeth finally said.

Zoë shook her head. "Yes. My sisters disowned me, and my name was blotted out from history, erased from the minds of men."

"For giving Hercules a sword," Percy said. He lifted Riptide. " _This_ sword."

Zoë nodded. "That sword has been in the hands of many, including myself for a time. I found it in the Gardens of Babylon, at the beginning of Greece's formation. A century later, I gave it to Hercules. No doubt, he gave it to one of the servants and lost it. Some centuries later, Chiron found me and offered me the sword back, but by this time, I wanted no part of it. He kept it, and several of history's greatest heroes and villains have held that sword, as well as some of the most ordinary people thee will ever meet. At one point in the 1900s it was in a museum."

"Someone must have stolen it, because Thalia got this off of a monster who had taken it off of a beaten demigod," Percy told her.

Zoë nodded reluctantly.

Atlas sneered and opened his mouth to speak, but Thalia cut him off.

"Percy?" Thalia said warily. She sighed. "Try not to do anything too stupid, okay?"

"I challenge you, Atlas," Percy said evenly.

Thalia shrugged. "Well, better at thirteen rather than _nine_ …"

Phoebe squeaked: "Yep, he's mad."

Annabeth seemed a little stunned on how Thalia was so unconcerned.

Percy, for his part, seemed to know that he was facing the General of the Titans. He readjusted his grip on Riptide uneasily. How ironic would it be, that Atlas would be beaten by his own daughter's sword, he mused absently. His eyes were darker than they should have been.

Thalia, Jason, Nico, and Bianca all scattered to form a square around Atlas and Percy. As one, they plunged their weapons into the ground.

Atlas laughed. "What was that supposed to do?"

Thalia scooped up a pebble and lobbed it at him. Halfway, the four weapons lit up and barriers made themselves known, electricity arcing across the cube and frying the pebble to ashes.

"To make sure that neither can summon physical help," Jason explained.

As it was customary when a demigod fights immortals, Percy struck first: a simple jab, testing the waters.

Atlas swung his spear in a killing overhead blow. Percy moved to intercept it, going down on one knee to brace himself, and the spear and the sword met with a deafening _clang_ as Percy brought Atlas to a standstill.

Muscles trembling, Percy held Atlas a bay for fifteen seconds…thirty seconds, and then tilted his sword so that Atlas's spear went sliding off. Percy whirled around with impossible speed and grace, getting to his feet and nearly taking off Atlas's head as the Titan stumbled from the sudden lack of resistance. As it was, Atlas had a deep cut in his left cheek.

Percy launched into a flurry of offensive swipes, taking full advantage of Atlas's temporary weakness, his darkened eyes narrowed with concentration. He sliced towards the General's feet, like he was aiming to cut off his feet at the ankles and then changed direction at the last possible moment and cut a deep gash in his leg. He followed up by reversing the blade and swiping across Atlas's torso, cutting through his breastplate and ripping through skin and hard muscle, making it so that every movement hurt.

Atlas recovered, nearly disarming Percy—literally, Percy nearly had an arm cut off from Atlas's well-placed spear thrust.

"Oh my gods," Annabeth muttered, staring, as Percy nimbly spun away, slicing another gash in Atlas's breastplate.

Atlas spun his spear unexpectedly, clipping Percy in the chest—who, unlike Atlas, wasn't wearing armor. Percy's skin sparked as he hunched over from the pain briefly.

The two backed away. The flurry of sword swipes and injuries had taken all of fifteen seconds.

Percy backed up to the edge of the cube and closed his eyes.

The hurricane appeared even faster than the one he and Jason did in Arizona, clouds of water vapor churning around with him in the eye of the hurricane. Those outside the cube couldn't feel anything, but Atlas was clearly impeded by the hurricane-force winds.

Percy took advantage of it and pressed Atlas backwards, spinning around the Titan like a wind-resistant hummingbird, his attacks appearing at random. When he stopped in front of the Titan for half a second, he kicked Atlas in the chest, and with a cloud of sparks, Atlas was sent flying. He shattered the lightning barricade and bowled into Zoë, Phoebe, and Artemis, who was still under the sky.

Percy collapsed: he had broken his leg when he kicked Atlas. Riptide clattered out of his hand.

The force behind the kick had sent everyone in the way flying: Zoë and Phoebe had gotten thrown in opposite directions, Artemis was sent dangerously close to the cliff, and Atlas himself landed just beyond where he used to hold the sky.

Annabeth threw herself under the sky, before it came crashing down and flattened everything within twenty leagues. She struggled to her knees, sobbing with pain.

Luke was battling Ethan, who had tried to finish the job by killing Percy while he was down.

Thalia was knelt over Percy, who waved her off and sat up with a grimace. He grimaced again when he saw his leg. "I _don't_ think that my toes are supposed to point that way."

Atlas rolled to his feet and started towards Percy. Thalia put herself between Percy and Atlas, scooping up Riptide. Atlas spun his spear, which had reappeared in his hand, and whacked Thalia in the chest with the end of this spear. She was sent flying towards the cliff before she righted herself and landed lightly next to the edge.

Nico was the next and cut a deep gash into Atlas's leg, and was sent flying with a wave of Atlas's hand.

Percy flicked his wrists, not entirely out of tricks, and blasted Atlas back a step. "Impossible," Atlas groaned, recovering from the electricity-induced heart attack.

The son of the sea painfully climbed to his feet, using Thalia's spear that was still stuck in the ground as leverage. "No," Percy's voice cracked as he said the word. "Not impossible."

Artemis kicked Atlas in the chest to get his attention, drawing her hunting knives that had appeared on her hips again, now that she was free.

Percy painfully limped over to Annabeth, braced himself on his good leg, and helped her support the sky. Everyone else was either helping Artemis, or battling Ethan and the _dracaenae_. No one saw that Annabeth had been close to losing her grip on the sky.

"You stupid Seaweed Brain," Annabeth panted.

Percy cracked a wan smile, his vision blurring with pain. "How do I know that this isn't the only thing that you'll call me stupid for again?"

Annabeth laughed breathlessly.

 _Be ready_ , Artemis's voice said. Percy focused in on the fight with difficultly. Artemis appeared to be losing. She was on the ground, her head at Atlas's feet.

"The first blood in a new war!" he gloated, and stabbed downward.

Artemis jerked to the side, grabbed the spear and kicked upwards, hitting the Titan with enough force to land Atlas just under the sky, pushing Percy and Annabeth away, who rolled away as fast as they could.

Atlas screamed curses at the sky as he was trapped under his burden again.

Percy staggered to one foot, nearly crashing into Annabeth, swearing under his breath.

"I hate breaking things," he muttered as Annabeth steadied him.

"Try breaking your collarbone," she told him. "You can't even sit up without assistance."

"I'm good, thanks," he said between gritted teeth, clinging to Annabeth so that he could stand up.

Thalia hobbled over, clutching her side, eyeing Atlas warily. "Artemis says that we need to leave. Ethan's cruise ship is docking, and we're in no shape to face off with a whole army of monsters."

"Not right now," Percy agreed, wincing. "How's Nico?"

"Concussion," she said. "He'll be okay. No long-lasting damage."

"He'll be back to annoying us in no time," Percy joked half-heartedly.

However half-hearted it was, Thalia laughed.

* * *

 

They arrived at Olympus with no time to spare. Artemis's dress was still in tatters from her imprisonment as she walked into the Throne Room, trailing a bunch of demigods.

Zoë and Phoebe were directly behind her, as Artemis's sisters-in-arms; with Jason and Annabeth helping Percy behind them; Clarisse was standing on her own, with the exception of a hand on Luke's shoulder to steady herself; Nico and Bianca were behind those two; and Thalia and Grover bringing up the rear.

There were eyebrows raised at how freely they mingled with each other, especially with powerful people that were complete strangers not two weeks before.

Apollo went to go check on his sister, but she gently fended him off. "Go check on the son of Poseidon, he is wounded worse than I," she said sternly, a small smile gracing her lips.

Apollo stubbornly stood there, arching an eyebrow at her futile attempts to get him to stop worrying. She matched his stance and expression, drawing herself up. There were some snorts of amusement as everyone saw that they really were siblings, despite their differing personalities and hair and eye color. They both had that sharp, slightly upturned nose, archer's bow lips, and pronounced jaw line, along with small ears that peaked slightly at the top and stubbornness to rival Athena's.

Apollo gave up and swiftly wrapped his sister in a hug and went to go check on Percy.

"It is as we feared," Artemis said, sitting on her throne. "Grandfather is being risen, bit by bit, out of Tartarus."

A muscle jumped in Luke's jaw. Clarisse rolled her eyes. Annabeth stifled a snort. _Old news_ , was the general thought.

Demeter sat forward. "Yes, we know. I can't imagine why Zeus can't feel it, I know all the rest of his siblings can. We all know that he's being summoned out of the Pit at seemingly random intervals." She shuddered. "Horrid thing. But what can we do about it? We don't know how he's being drawn out of the Pit, nor do we know how to seal it tighter."

"He wants to rule Olympus. He wants a new Golden Age," Artemis said calmly.

"We can fortify the defenses around Olympus," Athena suggested.

"We can keep track of our weaknesses," Poseidon suggested.

The rest of the gods looked at him. He raised an eyebrow. "That's how Artemis was captured, no? Clarisse was trapped under the sky, who had been baited there by our enemy—Ethan. Artemis cannot stand to see a maiden in pain."

"Such as the Ophiotarus," Hephaestus grunted.

The rest of the gods looked alarmed. "Has it reformed, yet?" Hermes asked.

"It has," Zoë suddenly spoke up.

Mutters and whispers and chatters broke out among the gods. "Where is it, Zoë?" Artemis asked urgently.

Zoë turned towards Percy, who looked absolutely bewildered on why she was looking at him. "Summon the Ophiotarus, Percy. Thy art its protector."

"What?" Percy protested. "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what optometrist you're talking about."

"Not optometrist," Artemis said impatiently. " _Ophiotarus_."

"I don't know what that is!" Percy said vehemently.

"You talked with it at the dam!" Zoë protested.

Percy looked at her blankly. "The sea cow? Bessie? Yeah, I rescued the thing from a sunken fishing boat and a bunch of kelp at the Sound, the night before we left for the quest."

Athena buried her head in her hands. Artemis smacked her forehead. Zoë closed her eyes. For a second, Percy was a little bit scared, thinking he'd said something wrong. Then he realized Athena's shoulders were shaking with mirth.

"It was right under our noses, Artemis," Athena said, muffled. "All that planning… And it was right under our noses."

"Artemis got captured, looking for the Ophiotarus," Zoë said to herself.

Percy looked so confused. "What does Bessie have to do with the Ophio-whatsit?!"

"It's the same thing, cousin," Artemis said patiently. "Your so-called _Bessie_ and the Ophiotarus are one and same. The bane of Olympus."

Annabeth swallowed. "Uh, Percy? _Bane_ and _scourge_ mean the same thing…how many times did you see it?"

Percy swallowed. "He swam upstream."

"He wanted you to follow him," Zoë said emotionlessly, although she looked like she wanted to strangle him.

"But he's just a baby monster!" Percy protested. " _And_ he's a sea creature! How could he destroy Olympus?"

Poseidon sighed. "There is power in killing innocence, Percy. The Ophiotarus himself couldn't bring down Olympus, but the power gained from sacrificing him…"

"Is enormous," Hades finished quietly. "Enough to shake Olympus from its foundations."

Athena gave the five children of the Big Three sharp looks. _Like you might be able to do, if you continue this way,_ she thought privately. It wasn't time to give them that information.

Apollo sat back from Percy. "Well, dang, dude, I don't think I even want to know what you did, because you broke your leg in four different places and cracked your ankle."

Percy gave the sun god a dry look. "Well, it'd be an awful shame if I broke my leg four times in the same spot at the same time."

"He kicked Atlas halfway across the mountain," Thalia supplied.

Apollo didn't know whether to look amused or impressed.

"I still don't know how you did that," Thalia admitted. "Because it wasn't from—"

"It was so cool to watch!" Nico exclaimed, cutting her off.

"It wasn't so cool to feel," Percy told him wryly. "I was literally two seconds from being impaled with that gigantic spear of his."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "And at one point you were whooping Atlas's butt."

"And then he nearly chopped my arm off," Percy said dryly. "I barely managed to avoid that."

Annabeth gave him a look. "Percy, most would've been killed with that first overhead strike. You weren't. That makes you an anomaly right there."

"A _what_ now? That sounded like an insult," Percy said. "Is it just me, or did that sound like an insult?"

"Anomaly," Annabeth repeated. "You know, strange. Out of the ordinary. One in a million. Irregularity. Variance. Inconsistency. And now that I know that this is the _second_ time…"

"I didn't know. But thanks," Percy told her dryly. "And four years ago I didn't know what I was doing."

Luke arched an eyebrow. "From the way Atlas was practically glowing with fury, I'd say that you beat him then, too, so even if you didn't know what you were doing, you still did it."

"And you were _nine_." Annabeth added.

"Three years after he started training," Thalia added.

"Thalia reminds me," Annabeth said, staring at Percy quizzically. "You were literally a second away from being impaled and you blasted him." She paused. "With lightning," she clarified.

"Lightning is in hurricanes, isn't it?" Thalia asked. "You've seen him make enough of those."

"Yeah, but—"

"He's been doing small hurricanes since he was eight and a half," Jason told her dryly.

Thalia looked at him. "What's your definition of _small_?"

"Six feet across," Jason told her.

"Okay, yeah," Thalia agreed.

"And these two have been doing twisters since Jason was five," Percy said dryly. "Twisters and small storms."

Thalia chuckled. "So yeah, all of us have pretty much mastered the components that make up what we usually do."

"Which includes lightning," Jason added.

While the demigods had been having their conversation, the gods had come to a silent agreement to solve the Ophiotarus problem as soon as possible— _after_ the demigods left.

"What about the prophecy?" Ares asked a little bit too loudly.

The demigods hushed their conversation.

"All of them have the chance to trigger it, with the exception of Thalia," Athena admitted. "Tactically speaking, it's too dangerous for them to live."

"Kronos is going to rise, whether or not you kill us," Thalia spat, edging towards the extremely vulnerable Percy.

"You will not kill my son!" Poseidon hissed.

"Nor my children," Hades said strongly.

"Does it look like I'm planning on it?" Athena said calmly. "Thalia makes a valid point, and they would help the war effort greatly, whether or not it would be prudent to have them living."

"They are against the Titans, that much has been shown," Artemis spoke up. "If not from freeing me, then from battling against Atlas so furiously. If we kill them, then we are no better than the Titans we seek to imprison."

Silence as the rest of the gods digested Artemis's well-spoken words.

"All in favor of letting them live?" Zeus finally asked.

Dionysus abstained—maybe because he was sleeping, but that's beside the point. So did Ares and Athena. But everyone else…

"It's settled. They live," Zeus declared. "Now let us celebrate, for it is the Winter Solstice!"

* * *

 

Percy sought out Annabeth. Annabeth ended up finding him, first.

"So this is it, huh, Seaweed Brain?"

Percy whipped around and relaxed as he saw the person he was looking for. "Not for long, probably," he admitted. "My mom is probably going to want us to get caught up in our education. With the war just around the corner, she'll probably want us to stop going around the country for a while."

"Until the peace comes," Annabeth surmised.

Percy nodded in agreement. "We'd still need to be able to practice and train somewhere. I might be going to Camp for longer periods of time. It'd be good to relax for a little bit."

"Nothing is ever relaxing around you," Annabeth told him dryly.

Percy shrugged, a small smile on his face. "It's weird how people find the ocean relaxing, isn't it?"

Annabeth laughed. "I don't think it applies to you."

Percy sat down on a nearby stone bench. "I can't imagine going back to school," he admitted. "Let alone high school."

The daughter of Athena shrugged. "You'll get used to it. It isn't as much of a nightmare as you probably think." She sat down next to him, careful to not get too close.

"What, you think that I'll infect you with my boy-ness?" Percy asked, noticing as well.

Annabeth socked him in the arm. Percy burst into laughter, discreetly rubbing the area where she punched him.

"Percy!"

Percy smiled ruefully. "That's Thalia."

Annabeth stuck her hand out. "Pleasure doing a quest with you," she said jokingly.

Percy rolled his eyes, but shook her hand. "I think I've rubbed off on you. Pleasure doing a quest with you."

"You have not!"

Percy got up to go, laughing. "If you say so, Wise Girl!"

* * *

 

"Percy!"

His mother squeezed the breath right out of him. Percy winced. "Mom…uh…not doing so great!"

"Do you know how long you've been gone?!" Sally exclaimed. "You said that you had to go get these two kids in Maine. _You've been gone for two weeks_!"

"Yeah, we ran into some Greeks," Thalia said awkwardly. "Overdid it a bit. Went on a quest. Battled a couple hundred monsters. A Titan. A couple other demigods, not all of whom were Roman. You know, the usual shenanigans…"

Sally glared at her over Percy's shoulder. "You're supposed to be a responsible adult!"

"I told him to not do anything too stupid!" Thalia protested. "Battling a Titan when he's thirteen isn't as stupid as battling a Titan when he was _nine_ and had no back up!"

Thalia's hair, more spiky than usual, suddenly sparked. Irritated, she ran a hand through her hair.

Suddenly Sally let go of Percy and started hugging Thalia, who gasped. "Miss Sally, I've got several cracked ribs from Atlas's spear," she gasped out.

"None of us are in great shape," Nico said dryly.

Sally eyed them all critically. "Come on in, you five. Dinner's almost ready. You're telling me about how Percy suddenly has a grey streak and how you all look like you have the world riding on your shoulders."

Four of them turned to look at Percy's hair, who instinctively reached up with a hand, as if he could feel the color of his hair.

"He does have a grey streak!" Bianca exclaimed. It was very noticeable.

" _None_ of you noticed?" Sally asked, surprised.

"I was a bit too busy trying to keep Percy from being killed," Thalia admitted. "By the gods themselves, no less."

Percy shifted his weight to one leg as his mother looked at him accusatorily. "What? I didn't do anything! It's their own fault that I was born!"

Sally snorted and went back into the kitchen.

"I have to agree with Bianca," Thalia said, resigned. " _Habes mortem optare_."

Percy frowned at her. " _Non_."

" _Sic_ ," Thalia argued.

"Seriously?" Jason groaned. "You're having an argument over whether or not he has a death wish in a supposedly dead language."

The two looked at him. "So?" Percy asked.

Jason threw up his hands and followed Sally into the kitchen. "I give up."

"What?" Percy defended. "You didn't even try!"

"You don't see the irony of arguing about you having a death wish in a dead language?!" Jason yelled.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Of course I got that, Sparky. That's what makes it all the more entertaining."

There was a thud in the kitchen. Bianca began to laugh. "He just banged his head against a wall or a frying pan, I know it."

" _Damnit, B, quit reading my mind!_ " Jason yelled, muffled. "It's creepy enough without you knowing what I'm doing without seeing me!"

The rest of them began to crack up.


	7. Ethan Nakamura

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy helps Annabeth in the dead of the night, and everyone is worried.

Bianca reached out to the match with her other hand, hoping to catch a little bit of the normal flame. She bit back an extremely unladylike curse as she burned herself on the fire. The match went out.

Sighing, she tossed the blackened match into a cup of water, where it sizzled and joined another dozen matches.

An eerie melody floated inside her head, and Bianca groaned. She'd been hearing it on and off ever since she exited the Hotel. Sometimes it would just be once, sometimes it'd be on a loop for days on end. It was a melody she recognized, but she couldn't put words to it, nor could she name it. It was like forgetting a person's name and having it be on the tip of your tongue. She resisted the urge to bang her head on a wall.

Bianca struck another match, cupping her palm under the fire, humming the melody absently, knowing it so well that she could probably sing it in her sleep, willing a part of the flame to separate and follow her hand when she pulled it away.

Suddenly the flame shivered and Bianca held her breath so that she didn't unintentionally blow it out, but that wasn't it at all. The flame shuddered again and split into two, one hovering above Bianca's palm and one stuck to the match. Bianca's humming was back, smiling triumphantly, cradling the precious orange tongue with two hands, willing it to grow bigger.

"How are you _doing_ that?"

The flame vanished in a shimmer of heat. Bianca yelled in frustration and turned to the person who spoke. "Do you know how many times I lit a match and tried to get it onto my palm instead of that burnt piece of wood?! Over a dozen!" She picked up the water bottle full of sunken matches and rattled it in his face. "One would think that manipulating normal fire rather than hellfire or Greek fire would be easier, but _nooooo_ , its power is so weak I have to struggle to keep ahold of it!"

Then she realized who she was yelling at, and her anger deflated like a popped balloon. "Oh. Sorry, Jason."

Jason coughed awkwardly. "Tirade over?"

That inflamed Bianca's temper again. "Oh shut up! You made me lose concentration on that slippery flame! It was the first time I'd actually got it! And you just botched it!"

"Guess not," Jason muttered. "And what twelve-year-old says 'botched'?"

Bianca threw up her hands and yelled wordlessly in frustration. She plopped herself back down and struck another match, still hearing that infernal tune that no one else could hear. She cupped her palm under the flame, willing it to split like last time. It shivered, but it didn't split. She tried right up until the flame was singeing her fingertips, and she dropped it into the water bottle, exasperated.

The daughter of Hades took a deep breath to calm herself, and tried again, absently humming the song. She struck another match against the side of the box and it shivered as it got closer to her palm. Bianca willed it to separate, like so many other times, and this time she got results almost immediately. A grin found its way onto her lips, and she dropped the match into the water bottle and cupped the flame, sustaining it with her own energy. She widened the space between her hands, willing the flame to grow bigger. It split into two.

She resisted the urge to laugh. A moment ago she couldn't get it to split, now she couldn't get it to _stop_ splitting.

The two flames split again, so that she was now sustaining four tiny candle-like flames.

"Jason?" she said steadily. "Could you get me four candles quickly?"

Jason, well aware of a breeze that could waft the flames out of existence, walked by Bianca slowly, then sprinted out of the room once he was out of range. Thirty seconds later, he came back in with four candlesticks and set them on the ground in front of Bianca. They were lit almost as soon as they touched the ground.

Bianca slumped, exhausted. Sustaining that many flames at one time really took it out of her.

"Shut up with that stupid song, already, Bianca!" Nico yelled. "We all know that it's as dim as an ember!"

"That brings me to my question," Jason said, eyeing the door and Bianca alternately, as if either of them might want to eat him. "How many languages, exactly, do you know?"

Bianca looked at him incredulously. "Uh, _three_. You know, you _taught_ me two of them!"

Jason laughed. "Well, you certainly weren't speaking Greek or English, and if I translated it into Latin is sounds like gibberish. So…"

She sighed. "I've had this song stuck in my head for ages, and I can't remember the name or the lyrics, I can just hear the music. It pops into my head every once in a while, sometimes it goes on a figurative loop, sometimes it just plays once and I forget about it. That's it."

Nico appeared at the doorway. "B, we're Italian. You used to watch this movie in the Hotel at least once a day, and you'd go about the rest of the time humming one of those songs."

Jason looked from Nico to Bianca as if they were suddenly aliens. "You're _Italian_? Why didn't you tell the rest of us?!"

Nico blinked like he was coming out of a dream and clutched the doorframe for support. "Jeez, that's a whopper for a headache. B, Ms. Sally and I are making sandwiches. What do you want?"

Bianca laughed. "You? Making lunch? I don't believe it. What are my options?"

Nico looked lost for a second, trying to come up with all of the different things they had in the kitchen. "Turkey, ham, steak, BLT, or peanut butter and jelly," he listed. "I think I'm forgetting one, though. And hey, I can make lunch!"

"I was the one who packed your lunch for six months at Westover," Bianca said dryly. "BLT sounds good."

"I know that you don't like mayonnaise on it," Nico reassured her before she could add anything else.

Bianca shut her mouth, looking at her younger brother dryly. "Okay, brother, give it your best shot."

Nico grinned and ran out of the room. The candle flames wavered.

Jason stared at the daughter of Hades.

"What?" she said defensively. "It's not like I'm an alien from another planet. Honestly, we're already only half human."

"You speak Italian!" Jason exclaimed.

Bianca rolled her eyes. "My mother is an ambassador for Rome. I _wonder why_ I can speak Italian."

It was as if the words were the key to opening a floodgate. Bianca keeled over, clutching her head, nearly setting her hair on fire. Jason waved his hand and a gust of wind blew out the candles as he knelt next to Bianca worriedly, trying to get her to respond.

In the kitchen, there was a tremendous crash and the sound of something shattering.

Jason panicked. Bianca was in bad shape, but what if Nico accidentally impaled himself with something pointy, like a glass shard or a knife?

Beside him, Bianca muttered something in Italian and let out a plaintive wail. " _Mamma!_ "

Feet pounded in the hallway. The half-closed door flew open, revealing a white-faced Thalia and worried Percy.

"Go check on Nico," Jason said frantically. "I've got B, but check on Nico and make sure he hasn't impaled himself on something!"

The two turned and ran towards the kitchen without questioning.

" _Non_!" Bianca screamed, thrashing. Jason's panicky-ness hit the top as he thought that she might choke on her own tongue if she kept it up. He managed to pin her down. Honestly, she was as wriggly and slippery as a fish.

Bianca shrieked something that Jason was fairly sure wasn't complimentary and struggled even harder, yelling ' _non_ ' over and over again. He shook her. "Wake up, Bianca!" he yelled.

The still-smoldering candles flared. Jason froze. He knew all too well from Percy that instinctual or accidental usage of powers were thrice as deadly as intentional.

" _Stai lontano da me!_ " Bianca screamed. _The neighbors must think I'm murdering her,_ Jason thought dryly.

She burst into flames.

Jason lurched away from her, shocked, and backed across the room, burned and stunned, his mouth hanging open in astonishment. He was afraid to even look at his hands, so he kept them under his armpits.

Bianca stood up faster than he thought possible, now that she was free. Strangely enough, she didn't seemed bothered by the fact that she was in flames. In fact, she seemed to relish the fire's heat, making the air around her shimmer like a mirage. The whole situation seemed unreal: Bianca was on fire, Jason was severely burned, Bianca and her brother were having some kind of panic attack, Bianca had an unlimited amount of resources to light up and throw at her disposal, Jason had his sword and a couple gusts of wind.

An even match? Not so much.

"Percy!" he hollered.

Bianca flew at him with all the savagery of a wild animal. Jason scrambled to get away, brandishing his sword painfully and warily. "Percy!" he yelled desperately. Bianca fired something at him and he let out a short yell as he dodged it, waving his hand to make sure the lampshade didn't catch on fire. "Gods!" he yelped.

"Oh my gods," someone said behind him.

"If you're Percy, get in here, if you're not, sorry, but I'm going to kick you out of here," Jason yelled.

"I'm Percy!" he yelped. He ducked as Bianca chucked something at him. It crashed against the far wall. "What did you do?!"

"What did _I_ do?" Jason yelled, offended. "I saved her life by pinning her down so that she wouldn't choke on her own tongue!"

Water blasted by his ear and doused Bianca thoroughly. She steamed in the cooler air. Bianca shuddered from head to toe and seemingly came back into herself. She stood there, looking at the destruction of the room, horrified. Then her eyes reached Jason, whose shirt was partially burned off and was littered with burn and singe marks. A lock of his hair was still glowing orange.

"Oh my god," Bianca whispered. "Jason, oh my god."

She reached towards him, but Jason backed away, unsure if she was going to relapse or something.

"Jason, she's trying to help," Percy said, confused.

"I'm sorry, I don't think you've seen my hands yet, have you?" Jason snapped. "Neither have I, in fact, because I'm scared to see what they'll look like. I'm sorry, Bianca, but you need to get that power under control."

" _I_ did that?" Bianca asked, horrified. "Oh my god, Jason—"

"How's Nico?" Jason cut her off, looking at Percy.

Percy swallowed, looking like he'd like to say something else to the pair of them, but he said, "Nico's fine. He'll be unconscious for a little bit longer, but he'll be okay."

"Unconscious?" Bianca demanded.

"Thalia had to knock him out," Percy explained. "Or he would've gone on a rampage."

"I would've done that, but I couldn't get close enough without getting burned," Jason admitted. He gingerly unwrapped his hands from the _gladius_ 's handle and flipped it, where it landed on a bed. Jason stuffed his hands in his pockets before he could see the full extent of the damage.

"Let me see," Percy told him.

"I'll be fine," Jason said.

"I'm sure you will, but I have this thing about making sure people in the group are okay and will be able to use their hands again," Percy said dryly. "I get it from your sister."

"It's nothing big," Jason tried to convince him.

Percy looked at him, a challenge in his eyes. Jason met his gaze evenly.

"Bianca, go check on your brother, he's probably awake by now," Percy said.

"But—"

"Bianca, please just go do it," Percy told her tiredly.

Hesitantly, the daughter of Hades backed out of the room.

Percy turned towards Jason expectantly. "I got rid of her; I know you don't want her to see the amount of damage she did. Show me your hands."

Reluctantly, Jason pulled his hands out from his pockets, wincing as he opened them from their curled state.

"Oh my gods," Percy said, staring. "You call that _nothing big_? Thalia!"

"No!" Jason yelped quietly, yanking his hands back and stuffing them in his pockets again. "She'll go completely mother hen on me! She's not my mother, she's my _sister_!"

Percy shrugged. "Which would you like, mother hen, or not being able to control your hands because of an infection?"

"It's a _burn_ ," Jason said, irritated. "My skin is still intact!"

"You burned through your skin all the way to your muscle!" Percy yelled at him. "It just looks like the skin is still intact because the injury was instantly cauterized!"

"You've all gone batty today!" Jason yelled. "First Nico, then Bianca, now you! Who's next? Me or Thalia?!'

"You're covered in burns!" Percy yelled. "If I hadn't gone batty, then you'd wonder about me!"

"Why can't you just leave me alone?!" Jason screamed.

"Because I'm a worried mother hen that will peck at you until you let me or Thalia treat those hands!" Percy screamed back.

"You're only a year older than me, and I still have more training!" Jason screamed.

" _Shut up_ , both of you!" Thalia yelled, coming into the room. "I'd smack the pair of you, but my little brother looks like he's about to burst into a puff of ashes if someone _pokes_ him, let alone smacking him!"

Jason looked at his arms, suddenly noticing how red they were. He looked like a tomato.

"Look," Thalia said patiently. "Jason, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but B did a number on you."

"I noticed," Jason said shortly.

Thalia chuckled. "Most would think that it would be hard to notice, but when you're running on adrenaline you don't tend to focus much on bodily pain."

_I wasn't running on adrenaline, I was running on fear and pain,_ Jason thought privately.

Thalia put her slim, calloused hands out, saying, "Hands."

Unlike with Percy, Jason knew not to argue with his sister. Reluctantly, he took his hands out of his pockets and showed them to her. They looked worse because the thin layer of burnt blood had broken when he had flattened them out to show Percy, so they had streaks of crimson blood on them as well.

Thalia studied them. "Wrap your hands in a thin layer of bandages and submerge them for five minutes every hour. Keep using your hands, if you keep your hands damp, you'll be okay. Replace the bandages every day to keep them from getting infected. Your skin will grow back. I'll treat the rest of your burns in the kitchen."

Jason exhaled, staring at his sister's retreating back. "That went over surprisingly well."

Percy laughed. "Uh, cousin, you might want to trash the shirt. It's ruined."

The son of Jupiter looked down and laughed as well. He might as well look like someone who time-traveled back into caveman times and got caught in a bush fire. Jason reached for the hem and curled his fingers around it and winced, but kept gripping the shirt as he got the remains off of himself. Percy almost tossed him a new one, but then he hesitated. "Thalia will probably want to treat the ones on your chest," he said.

"Just give me the shirt," Jason said, shaking his head. "Unlike you, I'm not exactly comfortable wandering around the house with my shirt off. Maybe it's the Roman thing."

"But what about all those movies—"

Jason held up a hand, laughing. "Stop right there, Percy. Jeez, movies will always be movies, and most of them are historically wrong. Look at the _Wrath of the Titans_."

"That's a Greek movie," Percy pointed out.

"And yet it's as incorrect about Greeks as the rest of Hollywood is about Romans," Jason countered. He gingerly plucked the shirt from Percy's hands and threw it on, wincing occasionally as he pulled burnt skin.

Percy herded him out of the room and into the kitchen where Thalia was waiting with a bowl of water, some sort of cream, and bandages.

Bianca came up to him. "Jason, I'm really sorry."

Jason smiled wanly. "Its fine, B. Just try not to burst into flames while I'm trying to stop you from choking on your own tongue again. I don't want to have to do this twice."

Bianca smiled in relief. "I think I can do that."

She stood behind him as Thalia gestured for Jason to sit, and then began to wrap his hands loosely enough so that he wouldn't lose circulation, but tightly enough so that it would form to his hands. Once she was done, she warned him: "I will warn you, Jason, the water has a little bit of hydrogen peroxide in it, just so that it won't get infected, but it will probably sting a little bit."

Jason nodded and submerged his hands, wincing as it stung, like Thalia had warned, but kept his hands under.

"Okay, pull 'em out," Thalia said, ready to start winding the bandages around his hands.

Jason turned around to let his sister wrap him up, and caught a glimpse of Percy and Bianca, hugging. She looked distraught, and Percy, awkward.

He had to smother a laugh.

* * *

 

Percy opened the door, rubbing one eye with the heel of his palm. He was wearing a tank top and shorts with his hair extremely mussed. "Yes?" he asked sleepily.

Annabeth whipped off her hat, shimmering into existence. Percy froze, his eyes flying wide with surprise. "I need to come in, before someone sees me."

Percy stepped aside to let her in while asking, "Its eleven o'clock at night, Annabeth, who on earth is going to see you?"

Annabeth sank onto the hallway stool, looking exhausted. Percy hurried shut the door quietly, so as not to disturb the rest of his family. "You okay? What's happened now?"

The daughter of Athena shook her head and stood. "It's gotten a lot worse, a lot faster. Demigods are disappearing, satyrs aren't coming back, and last night—" she lowered her voice, "—last night they found an entrance to the Labyrinth."

"That maze thing, right?" Percy checked, now wide awake.

She nodded. "It's an entrance into the Labyrinth, located at Zeus's Fist. Luke and I fell in when we'd been cornered by a bunch of scorpions."

" _Excuse_ me?"

"Long story," she dismissed, waving it off. "Speaking of which, Dionysus is gone. He's gone to go check on some friends among the minor gods, to check to see if they're still on the right side. Point is, there's an entrance straight into the heart of camp."

Percy's face was blank. "Is that a bad thing? Why can't you guys just avoid it?"

Annabeth's palm met her forehead. "Percy, it's an invasion route straight into the heart of Camp! Armed with this information, Ethan wouldn't have to worry about bypassing the borders and exposing his spy!"

He paled. "It would be slaughter if the Greek demigods were caught unawares."

"Ethan knows that," Annabeth promised. "We know that he's been sending solo explorers into the Labyrinth. We know, because Lacey found one by her Dad's house. He was meandering through the desert in full battle armor in a hundred degree weather, babbling about string."

"String," Percy repeated in disbelief.

"He'd been driven completely insane," Annabeth said quietly.

"Lacey's the Aphrodite girl, right?"

She nodded. "She was horrified. And since Dionysus isn't here, he's still going on and on about string and some girl named Mary."

Percy swore abruptly and violently. "The one time that you need him, he isn't there." Then a thought struck him. "Wait, why are you _here_? Why aren't you at Camp, protecting your brothers and sisters?"

Annabeth shook her head slowly, saying: "This afternoon, a prophecy was issued to me. It hinted at other weird powers coming into play, and I automatically thought of you guys. I mean, if anyone's weird by demigod definition, it's you five."

"Thanks," he said dryly. "So you think one of us is going on a quest again?"

"I don't want to take any more than five, and I've already got Grover and Tyson coming with me," she confirmed.

"Tyson," Percy repeated slowly, thinking. "Uh, my Cyclops half-brother?"

"Mmm," she agreed. "I'd like to only take one of you, since one is easier to sneak in than two, but I know how you guys are about splitting up."

Percy blinked. "Hang on, back up. Chiron doesn't know that you're here?!"

Annabeth blushed and shook her head sheepishly. "I'm going against direct orders to not interfere with you guys."

Percy laughed outright, delighted. "I definitely rubbed off on you!"

"You did _not_!"

"Before you balked at the idea of us just _mentioning_ disobeying the rules!" Percy protested.

"So?! I'd like to come out of the Labyrinth— _alive_. As much as I hate to admit it, you guys are my best bet!" Annabeth said vehemently.

Percy sobered. "C'mon, let's go."

"Where are _you_ going?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Back to Camp, duh. You wanted one of us along, you got me. If I wake up the others to discuss it, either at least three of us are coming or none of us are coming. We go now, Thalia and Mom will freak, but they'd never suspect the Camp for taking me on a harebrained quest."

She looked flabbergasted. "You don't have any supplies!"

He reached under the coffee table and brought out a blue bag and slung it over his shoulder. "I have enough food in here to last me a week when I regularly eat—like, three meals a day heaped with stuff on a dinner plate, kind of regularly eat. I have three spare changes of clothes, two canteens of water, a canteen of nectar, and a canteen of the strongest coffee you will ever have, which is also spiked with a little bit of nectar. Cold, yes, disgusting, yes, but it'll keep you bouncing off the walls for the next hour—it can keep you alive when you're dead tired."

Annabeth shrugged and put on her cap, slipping out the door. Percy followed her, scribbling a note, flipping off the lights, locking the door, and pulling the door closed.

* * *

 

Thalia opened her eyes to Jason frantically shaking her awake. "Wha'?" she slurred groggily.

"Percy's gone!" he said urgently.

That got her awake. " _What_?! Did he leave a note? Why would he leave in the middle of the night?"

Jason shoved a piece of paper in her face. Blinking a couple times, Thalia took it from her younger brother and read the cryptic note: _I'll be fine. You know I'm hard to kill. –PJ ψ_

"He's planning on being gone at least a week," Jason said, nervously biting on his lip. A line of electricity crackled between his first two fingers on his left hand.

Thalia shook her head. "What? How do you know that?"

"His bag is gone," Nico said. "There are only four bags under the table, not five."

Thalia let out a shaky breath. "You guys hear anything?"

"Percy slept on the couch because he was too hot in his bed," Jason said. Thalia jumped down from her fortress bed, landing lightly on her feet. Jason set down beside her, having being flying as he woke her up.

"Out, both of you," Thalia ordered. "Go get dressed into something sensible. We can search the city and check all his favorite hiding spots."

"Camp," Nico suggested.

"Either one of them," Bianca added dryly.

"Nico would have to do the Roman camp by himself, and he isn't quite to that stage where I think that he has enough training to go by himself," Thalia said.

"You've been with us for seven months," Jason told him. "You need at least a year before you get solo missions. A year and a half is standard."

Bianca raised an eyebrow. "Percy's the only one that you two have 'adopted'."

Thalia nodded. "He set the precedent by battling the Chimera by himself a year and a half after we got him. He got away with a couple of burns and three claw marks across his chest."

Bianca winced. "And _how_ old was he?"

"Seven and a half," Jason supplied. "I'm eleven months younger."

"So you were like six and five-twelfths," Bianca said with some amusement.

"Something like that," Jason agreed.

"Guys, out," Thalia said, opening the door. "Go get changed. Mom knows, right?"

The two boys exchanged guilty looks. "We left her asleep."

"Leave her that way," Thalia said gently. "With a little luck, we'll be back before she even wakes up with Percy in tow."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Uh, cuz, I don't think you've noticed, apparently, but our luck sucks."

Thalia sighed. "I know. But we need to at least try. Now, out!"

She shooed them out the room and shut and locked the door in their faces.

Bianca giggled at her exasperated face as she took off her pajama shirt and reached for her bra.

* * *

 

Percy was busy hiding from Chiron when he found the tank-sized hellhound sitting in the arena, chewing a dummy's head off.

His first reaction was complete shock. How had it gotten past the borders? Then there was the: _Hey, this thing will eat me if I don't kill it first_ reaction. Then there was the: _What-the-crap-where-did-that-sword-come-from_ reaction when he acted upon the second reaction and got an unexpected third.

He lunged backwards, away from the hellhound, and struck at the new threat. The hellhound turned around and barked at the dueling pair—a sound slightly louder than an artillery gun.

"Whoa!" the owner of the sword said. "Whoa, there, truce!"

Percy hesitated, and the other guy stopped counterattacking. "What is _that_ doing in the arena?!"

The hellhound barked again, thumping its tail against the ground, making a mini-earthquake. Percy nearly got thwapped on the head.

" _She_ is called Mrs. O'Leary, and she's my pet," the guy said, taking off his helmet. Percy stepped backwards in surprise; he had grey mixed in throughout his brown hair.

"Yes, I know, I'm old," he said with some amusement. "I get that comment a lot."

Percy chuckled. "It definitely wasn't what I expected. The oldest demigod I know is my cousin, and she'll be twenty-one this December."

The swordsman took a closer look at Percy. "Huh, the resident strangers, I guess?"

"The oldest son of Athena, I guess?" Percy countered.

"Promise you won't kill me if I put up my sword?" he asked.

Percy nodded once, capping Riptide, and stuck out his hand. "Percy Jackson."

"Quintus." The swordsman's handshake was firm. "Just Quintus."

"'Fifth'," Percy translated. "Five things you're trying to redeem yourself for?"

Quintus's face turned into surprise. "Something like that."

Mrs. O'Leary licked Percy, and he flinched, half-expecting to get eaten, despite Quintus's reassurances that he most definitely would not get eaten. He offered Percy his shield. Percy looked at it. "What do you expect me to do with this?"

"Throw it," Quintus said. He mimed tossing a Frisbee. "She obviously likes you, you're already drenched in dog drool."

"She has a strange way of showing her appreciation," Percy said dryly, wiping the saliva off his face, but he took the shield and tossed it like a fifty-pound Frisbee. He winced as he pulled something in his arm. "Whew, keeping her entertained could be a workout in and of itself. Speaking of which, how did you…um," he gestured to Mrs. O'Leary in general.

He smiled wryly. "That is a very long story involving a horde of monsters, a lost pup, and several very large chew toys."

Percy eyed Mrs. O'Leary's formidable size. "Somehow, I don't doubt that."

Something brushed against his hand, and he looked down. A warm hand encircled his wrist. Percy smiled wryly as he looked at Mrs. O'Leary. "Well, as much as I'd like to get another bath in dog drool, I need to go check in with Chiron. Thanks for the…um…spontaneous sword practice."

Quintus smiled wryly. "I don't blame you, Percy. I probably would have reacted the same way."

Annabeth tugged on Percy's wrist. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and turned to go. "See ya, Quintus."

Once out of eye and earshot, Annabeth whipped off her cap. "Seriously?" she said.

"I was bored!" he defended. "I slept for another six hours—with some really funky dreams, let me tell you—and then when no one showed up I did every trick I knew involving water, and then eventually I ran out, and then I remembered the arena that I found Thalia in last time I was here, so I was just like, 'I can go kill some dummies in there'."

"Sorry," Annabeth apologized. "Chiron has kept us all busy fortifying the defenses around Zeus's Fist. Malcolm's in charge of the Athena cabin now."

She handed him her cap. "Put that on and just stand with us. I told Grover that you were going to be there, but not Tyson. Stand between Grover and I, we should somewhat cover up your scent from any other satyrs or Chiron. Knowing Tyson, he'd freak that his half-brother was standing right there and he couldn't crush him in a hug."

Percy looked faintly alarmed. "Yeah, best let him know _after_ we get in the Labyrinth." He took her hat.

"Try not to destroy it, please," she said.

"Who said that I would?" Percy asked, feeling mildly insulted.

"You have a penchant for blowing things up and then being too near to the blast," Annabeth said dryly.

Percy shrugged and put on the hat. "So I just follow you?"

"Pretty much," she agreed.

Being invisible was disorienting, to say the least. When people walked towards him, he had to get out of their way, not the other way around, because, after all, they couldn't see him. When he looked down, he wouldn't see his shirt and pants and shoes on the grass, just the grass and a faint shimmer of his outline, but not enough to draw the eye.

Annabeth stopped about two feet away from Grover, just enough for him to stand beside them.

Chiron trotted up, putting a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. Percy could just hear him say, "Good luck" to Annabeth. The daughter of Athena looked apprehensive, Percy could definitely confirm that. The four of them looked at the pile of rocks.

"Well," Annabeth finally said. "Bye-bye sunshine."

"Hello, rocks," Tyson agreed.

And they plunged into the rocks before they realized how much of a suicide mission this was.

* * *

 

Jason set down on the Camp's green, his electric blue eyes scanning the Camp for Percy. "Chiron!" he yelled, waving to get the centaur's attention.

He turned. It looked like the camp was preparing for war, and it showed on Chiron's face. Absently, Jason wondered if he reflected the state of the camp like the gods did their realms. "Have you seen Percy?" the on-track part of him said as he ran towards the half-man, half-stallion.

Chiron had to think about it, and all of a sudden he went pale. "No," he muttered. "She wouldn't be that foolish."

"Who? You _have_ seen him, then?!" Jason said with mounting excitement.

Chiron put a hand to his forehead in disbelief. "Annabeth went and got Percy. That's why there was more sea scent around the three of them than usual. It wasn't just Tyson, Percy was there too. I'm sorry, Jason, but Percy is on a quest in the Labyrinth."

Jason blinked, unsure if he heard that right. "The _Labyrinth_? Why are you even sending a quest into the Labyrinth in the first place?!"

The old centaur nodded. "The Labyrinth. Annabeth was issued a quest—heaven knows that she's wanted one for long enough—but I did not realize that she brought along a fourth member, disguised by Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson's mingled scents. I'm sorry, Jason, they left an hour ago. They could be in Los Angeles by now."

Jason sat down hard on the grass, suddenly feeling dizzy. "The place is one big death trap," he whispered hoarsely. "How am I going to tell Thalia?"

"Percy is stronger than I believe anyone knows—including himself," Chiron said gently. He knelt next to Jason. "I saw it in his eyes, Jason, he is extremely wary of his own powers, and I believe he has subconsciously suppressed them, because of his fatal flaw."

Jason looked up, startled. "Fatal flaw?"

"All heroes have one," Chiron confirmed. "Percy's, as I strongly suspect, is personal loyalty."

Jason blinked up at the centaur, looking like a lost pygmy owl. "Personal loyalty? But isn't that a _good_ thing?"

Chiron knelt beside the distraught demigod. "I'm sorry to say, that the best of intentions can lead to the worst of incidents."

"But—"

"Jason, he would let the world fall if it meant saving you," Chiron said gently.

Jason opened his mouth and closed it wordlessly, astonished, dread weighing even further on his heart.

"Sir," a daughter of Ares said hesitantly.

Chiron got up and turned. "Yes, Clarisse?"

"You've got all three of the Big Three in the Big House," she said in a rush. "And they're all madder than hornets."

Jason felt whatever blood he had left in his face leave. Chiron looked equally pale. Jason scrambled to his feet, just as Chiron started to gallop towards the Big House, and Jason tore after him, his feet leaving the ground, and he rocketed towards the Big House at top speeds, blowing over campers and dryads alike, all seemingly unaware of the danger they were in.

* * *

 

"Two minutes down here and we're already being chased by some gods' forsaken monster!" Percy yelled in frustration. "Annabeth, catch!"

He whipped her hat off his head and tossed it towards her. She twisted around as she ran and caught it, slamming it on top of her own head. "Blast it, Percy! When he does, Grover, play one of your growing plants songs!"

Percy stopped and turned around. There was a rumbling sound as the ground just to the side of him exploded, and he swept his hands towards the thing, and the water followed his movements, twisting, turning, enveloping the entire thing, and extinguishing the flames. Grover put his pipes to his lips and began to play. Plants sprouted from the ground, twinning around its legs. There was a ripping sound as it ripped through a couple of the plants but was still firmly rooted in spot.

"Kill it, Annabeth!" Percy yelled.

He needn't have spoken. As he began to speak, it dissolved into a bunch of plants and metal scraps.

Percy exhaled and picked up one of the pieces that could've covered his chest, easy. "What was that?"

Surprisingly, it was Tyson who provided an answer as he picked up an even bigger piece than the one that Percy was holding. "Hephaestus's machine," he rumbled. Then he looked at Percy. "Who are you?"

Percy smiled. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. Sorry about the lack of an introdu—" He was cut off abruptly as he was squashed in a hug. "—ction," he squeaked. "Okay, big guy, I like all of my ribs in one piece…"

"Brother!" Tyson yelled.

"Hi, bro," Percy said breathlessly. "Can you let me go now? I can't breathe!"

Tyson set him on the floor. Percy's rasping wheezes were heard all along the corridor, but he had a wry grin on his face. "You did warn me," he finally got out, talking to Annabeth.

Grover hauled him to his feet, as the four faced off with the darkness of the Labyrinth again.

"If Daedalus is still alive, he'd be located in the center of the Labyrinth," Annabeth told them. "It would be the oldest part of the maze. He also used to be acquaintances with Hephaestus—he might know how to get to the center."

Percy smiled bitterly. "It sounds like a great plan Annabeth, if this quest was logical. We could be in California right now instead of New Jersey, which the direction we're headed in and how fast we've been going is where we _should_ be. For all we know, we could be under the Pacific Ocean."

"The oceanic crust is very thin—"

"It's thick enough for ten-foot-high stone hallways doubling over themselves," Percy interrupted. "Except in some places, like the Ring of Fire and the middle of the tectonic plates."

Annabeth huffed. "Alright, Seaweed Brain. But another reason why we wouldn't be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean: does America spread that far? Does America own the Pacific Ocean?"

"It owns islands in the Pacific Ocean, does that count?"

Annabeth stopped dead, groaning, banging her head on a wall. "Thank you, Percy, for that reminder of Hawaii."

"Actually, never mind," Percy said, obviously thinking of something else. "The Labyrinth wouldn't be in Hawaii."

Now even Grover was confused.

"Why not?" Annabeth asked.

Percy shrugged. "The same reason that the Labyrinth wouldn't go to Alaska."

"The land beyond the gods," Annabeth realized. "But Hawaii isn't part of that—"

"Hawaii has more gods inhabiting it than the Athena cabin has books," Percy said flatly. "I should know, we took a vacation there, hoping to get away from the monsters for a little bit. We ended up meeting five native gods and goddesses in the span of an hour and a half. One of them looked a lot like Hestia, actually. She was the goddess of a volcano. I can't remember which one, I ended up meeting about a dozen volcano gods, each with a different volcano."

Annabeth rubbed her head. "Wonderful. How many others do you know about?"

"Alaskan Native gods are the reason that Alaska is the land beyond the Greco-Roman gods," Percy said, ticking them off his fingers. "The Greek and Roman gods. The Hawaiian Native gods. There are quite a few gods and goddesses in the southwest that aren't from any pantheon that I can name off the top of my head. Don't go into Bronx; the place is like the mythological black market. Brooklyn I haven't figured out yet, but the place feels off, and weird things keep happening in the place."

"Brooklyn is bad," Tyson agreed. He twisted his arm around to touch his back. Percy didn't get the significance, but Annabeth and Grover apparently did, so he stayed silent.

"What weird things?" Grover asked.

"The sewer gas that caused people to hallucinate giant hummingbirds and flames," Annabeth answered. "You think that was real?"

"The Mist can make Mrs. O'Leary look like a poodle," Percy pointed out. "Who's to say that whatever lives in Brooklyn has a similar defense strategy?"

Annabeth sighed. "You're smarter than you look, you know that?"

Percy disagreed. "There's a difference between smarts and experienced. Besides, my idea of weird involves the world blowing up spontaneously with no help from the demigods or gods. Another pantheon? Seriously? That's the best that life can come up with?"

Grover bleated with laughter.

Percy shrugged. "Well, it's true. It's not like I'm being sarcastic, for once."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "You? Not being sarcastic? I'll believe that when you tame an elephant."

"Did you know there is such a thing as an elephant whisperer?" Grover interjected.

"I knew there are horse whisperers and duck whisperers and cat whisperers, but elephant whisperers, no, I didn't," Percy said.

"You _are_ a horse whisperer," Annabeth retorted.

"Only because of my heritage," Percy countered.

Grover rolled his eyes. Tyson grinned at the expression on his face.

* * *

 

Clarisse's description wasn't quite accurate. Poseidon and Hades, for once, seemed to be on the same side, and Zeus was arguing against them.

"My lords?" Chiron interrupted loudly, to be heard over the ever-increasing volume of the argument.

"They have only _survived_ this long because they have stuck together!" Poseidon yelled.

"Nico and Bianca would have died," Hades yelled.

"No, don't say that," Poseidon said scathingly. "He doesn't care what happens to his nephews and niece. Maybe we should point out that Thalia would've died five years ago, and Jason would've gone to the Romans and promptly executed if Percy hadn't been there?"

Jason covered his mouth, not sure if he was going to scream.

"And what about that time when the five of them were cornered," Poseidon added. "If Nico hadn't been there, all of them would've been picked off, one by one."

The son of Jupiter remembered the incident that previous March—there'd been close to an entire army that had closed in on the apartment. No matter how much they did, they couldn't get past them without killing themselves in the process, so Nico waited until they were in a dark alleyway, and unexpectedly traveled them to rural New Jersey.

"Perhaps that time when Percy and Bianca worked together to create a bomb?" Hades added. "Thalia would've been killed if they hadn't."

"Maybe back when it took all five of them to beat Atlas, even temporarily?" Poseidon said.

"And if they keep going like this they will have the power to bring Olympus to its knees!" Zeus yelled. "Imagine if we bring in one more! If they go against Olympus, we would stand no chance!"

"And whose fault is that?!" Hades screamed at his brother. "It's because of your gods-damned rule that we can't hardly help our own kids out, only sit back and watch helplessly!"

Jason wasn't sure if he'd heard any of that right. He backed up, his mind racing and coming up with no alternatives. "One of us has another brother or sister?" he asked hoarsely.

All three gods' heads whipped towards him. Jason swallowed, backing up, right up until he ran into the doorframe instead of getting out of the Big House.

"Jason, we would never hurt you," Poseidon was quick to reassure him.

"You've kept my kids alive," Hades agreed.

"But—"

Poseidon rounded on his errant brother. "I would shut your trap before it's bleeding from my fist being shoved down to your voicebox."

_Is that physically possible?_ the ADHD part of Jason wondered. _Why is my Greek father protesting my Greek uncles' unity?_ the non-ADHD part of him thought. _How could we 'bring Olympus to its knees'? Who has a new sibling? What rule? Is it because of the Great Prophecy?_

He tripped over the doorframe as Poseidon came closer, landing flat on his back on the porch of the Big House. He somersaulted backwards, catching his coin as it fell out of his pocket, and got his head out of the way just as his _gladius_ expanded and he slipped into a battle stance on the Big House porch. His back chilled, and he whispered, just faintly: "Get the others."

* * *

 

They had picked a hallway and turned down it. Not the most effective mode of travel, but it was better than standing there and looking like complete idiots to whoever may be watching.

"Why did you come get me again?" Percy asked suddenly into the silence.

"You have an uncanny ability to survive the stupidest stunts," Annabeth told him. "Now I'm hoping that you'll rub off on me, because taking this quest is probably the stupidest thing I've ever done."

Grover bleated with laughter, the sound echoing. It was hard to tell in the gloom, but he swore Annabeth was smirking.

"Okay, what's the real reason?" Percy asked, mirth in his voice.

"I really did just tell you," Annabeth said, not as flippantly this time. "Let's face it, you've done some incredible stuff, Percy. Facing off with Atlas twice, once when you were nine, staying alive this long alone is quite the résumé. That right there would get you instantly respected and popular in the demigod world. We aren't even talking about rescuing Artemis, or facing off with a fully-grown Manticore, or rescuing your cousins after having a face-to-face talk with, quite honestly, your scariest uncle. Rescuing your cousins when you knew their parentage."

Percy's voice sharpened. "We rescued them _because_ of your demigod hierarchy ladder. Bianca and Nico would be, at best, outcasts in your camp. Why do you think we fought so hard to keep them with our group?"

Annabeth fell silent, which was good, because Percy's temper had reached an all-time high since he was nine.

He'd defeated Atlas at nine because of his temper and desperation.

Percy whipped around, his wrists together and his fingers outspread in clawed positions. Water burst from his fingertips with the force of a fire hose. Something spluttered in the darkness. Percy drew Riptide for some light off the bronze blade. Without question, Annabeth drew her knife as well, and Grover put his reed pipes against his lips. Tyson thumped something on the head, and it collapsed in a pile of dust and armor. They tightened their circle, back-to-back.

"That wasn't a warm welcome, Percy Jackson," someone complained.

"You're sneaking up on me in the dark, and you aren't my cousin," Percy retorted. "You deserved it."

"Knock it off, Ethan," Annabeth snarled.

"Oh, Annie, c'mon," Ethan said.

It was the first time that Percy had gotten a good look at the guy who was raising Kronos. He was tall, taller than Percy, with straight raven-black hair uncharacteristic of the Greeks. Ethan was decked out stylishly in a black t-shirt with a breastplate over it and jeans and tennis shoes. If you took off the breastplate, he looked like someone you could pass on the street and never notice him, except for one thing: he had an eyepatch going over his left eye.

"Uh, dude, you know that _Pirates of the Caribbean_ is fictional, right?" Percy checked.

Ethan scowled and turned around. "Get them. They'll make themselves useful," he ordered someone harshly in front of them, concealed by the gloom.

* * *

 

"I have to admit, Zeus, your son is incredibly brave," Poseidon said. "If a bit paranoid."

" _Excuse_ me if I don't trust you," Jason said, both hands clutching his sword. "I thought we established that last December when you people voted on whether or not to kill us. Maybe even when Thalia ranted at the sky, cursing your guts out. Perhaps when Thalia ran away and dragged a two-year-old with her because their mother was abusive! What do I have to list to justify my lack of trust in the gods overall?!"

Zeus was silent.

"Granted, there are a few that I like—Lady Hestia teaches us when we see her, and she's always welcoming and friendly—Annabeth has actually seen her mother before she turned twelve, which is more than the majority of us can say—Lady Iris offered us a place to stay when we wound up in the middle of nowhere in Canada—Lord Hades was man enough to ask a mere demigod for help in taking care of his kids—Lord Apollo is sort of cool, he helped us find his sister and Clarisse and he helped out Percy—it was Demeter's kids and legacies who finished Thalia's strange method of training so that she could train Percy and I, and now Nico and Bianca, so I literally consider her a life-saver. No, my respect is not gained by your status of immortality. The way you treat your so-called inferiors is how I judge people—gods included," Jason snarled, backing up, going down the stairs, placing both feet in the shadows. It was a risky gamble, as Hades might notice faster than his son, since he was literally standing right in front of him, but Jason wanted to make sure that Nico could find him again.

"Well said, little brother," Thalia said behind him. There was a _shink_ behind him of a magic item expanding, and he thought it was Thalia's bracelet that she had still yet to use, but he was unsure.

Chiron was watching the drama unfold helplessly.

"What did you mean?" Jason asked. "When you said that if we kept going like this, we could bring the gods to their knees? Who has a new sibling? What rule? Is it because of the Great Prophecy?"

"Either one of them," Nico added darkly to Jason's right.

"You are divided," Poseidon chastised. "Without my son, you stand no chance."

"We'll take that chance," Bianca said firmly on his left, lifting her chin. Jason felt a smile tug at his lips at Bianca's brave words.

All Three looked taken aback. Hades, behind his brothers, though, was smiling wryly, probably much like Jason.

"You were going to try and break up the group," Jason figured out, glaring at Zeus. "Because if we 'continue this way' we could 'bring Olympus to its knees'. And Poseidon and Lord Hades, for once, were on the same side, because we've survived only because we've had each other. Percy, the next in line for the nearest Great Prophecy, would come back from his quest in the Labyrinth, which, by the way, was authorized with neither Chiron nor us, and have the four of us scattered to the winds and no one to turn to except a wary Chiron, right here, where he could be kept an eye on."

"Oh, hell no," Thalia exclaimed. "I formed this group, mister, and this group is sticking together like we have super glue on each other."

"Bianca and Nico are going nowhere near either of the Camps," Jason snarled. "At best, they would be avoided and outcasts. At worst, they would be _killed_."

"And I don't think either of us are up to being killed," Nico added his two cents'. "And I'm quite happy where I am."

"It's for your own good!" Zeus yelled at the four of them.

Without looking back, Jason knew that Thalia's eyes had taken on a frightening bluish-white tinge, the color of lightning. "Whose own good, _Zeusie-Poo_?" Thalia spat. Zeus bristled at the nickname. "Ours? Or _yours_? To keep _my baby brother_ , whom I defied _your wife_ for just over a decade ago, alive? To keep Nico and Bianca and Percy, who are just as much as family as Jason is to me, alive? Or yours, to keep your throne firmly planted to your electrocuted _ass_?"

During her monologue, Thalia had stalked forward, so that she was nose-to-nose with her father, her eyes mere slits of bright blue, electricity sparking off her skin and crackling over her dangerous shield. Father and daughter glared hatefully at each other, rainy grey on electric blue.

"For our own good," Thalia spat in his face. "Right. That'll be true when you stop being a paranoid son of Kronos with a lightning bolt up your arse."

Poseidon looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh. Hades had his hand over his mouth like he was contemplating something, but his shoulders were shaking ever so slightly.

"You are my daughter," Zeus said, lowly, dangerously. "You will _not_ talk to me like some hobo off the streets of New York."

"I'm your daughter," Thalia said sardonically. "Daughters can say damn well what they want to their dead-beat dads. Or even dads that they _want_ to be deadbeat."

"You don't want me in your life."

"You're damn right that I don't! I don't want you in my life, my brother's life, and anyone else in this group's lives! You're a pain in the neck to deal with, and I have a very strong urge to run you through with my spear—and _not_ the one that that you changed and promptly got broken!"

"It broke?" Zeus asked.

"You're as distractible as the god of ADHD!" Thalia yelled.

"There isn't a god of ADHD," Zeus said, looking annoyed. "Furthermore, how did your weapon even break?"

Thalia jabbed her finger into Zeus's chest. "If you insist on meddling in my life, _Father_ , then you'd better pay close attention, because one day I'll be there and in the Underworld the next."

Bianca gasped.

"I don't think you understand demigodly life, Zeus," Thalia told him, her voice like ice. She unbuttoned her denim jacket and untucked her tank top, exposing her midriff. Jason yelped. Bianca screamed. Zeus lurched away from his daughter, gaping like a fish.

"Oh my gods," Poseidon said, stunned.

"That's _after_ the ambrosia and nectar, by the way," Nico said calmly. "We got cornered in the grocery store."

Thalia's right side was scratched and scabbed over—it was quite clear that something had literally taken a bite out of her. Every movement had to have been hurting her, and yet she moved as surely as she ever had. She shoved her shirt back into her pants and buttoned up her jacket against the cold wind.

"I hate living like this," Thalia said flatly. "I hate living looking over my shoulder, I hate the fact that I will be hunted until the day I die. I hate the fact that you broke the oath to get some with my drunken, abusive mother. I hate the fact that you ordained that stupid law in the first place, because then I can't tell if you're being restricted by the oath or you just don't care. I hate being a demigod. You can rest assured knowing that the only reason that I will fight for you in the coming war—and it will come, just a question of when—is that I know that the Titan rule will be worse than yours."

Zeus visibly swallowed.

"You didn't think that it would be all sunshine and daisies when you accepted to be King, did you?" Thalia said, laughing incredulously. "You've made some bad choices, Zeus. Let's hope that we all exist long enough for you to eventually correct them."

The daughter of Zeus turned around and stalked off. Campers gave her a wide berth because of her furious expression and because she had little tendrils of electricity flying off of her and shocking whatever was in reach.

Zeus evaporated into thin air.

"Go find Thalia," Jason told Nico. "Get her back to the apartment. Make her some mac-n-cheese. Make sure that she eats it with a fork instead of a spoon. She'll feel better by stabbing the noodles. If there's Sprite, get her some of that too. Shake it up before you let her open it. She doesn't like the carbonation."

"What about you?"

"If they were going to kill us, they would've done it while Thalia and Zeus were distracted via yelling at each other," Jason pointed out dryly. "My feet are still in the shadows. If you can suck me into the shadow world without touching me, your father definitely can."

Bianca frowned at her brother.

"Prank gone wrong, I deserved it, B," Jason hastily told her.

Bianca snorted.

Nico shrugged. "Your funeral."

Jason lost it, laughing so hard that he doubled over, dropping his _gladius_. The stress of Percy in the Labyrinth, Thalia monologuing Zeus, the too-lame joke, finding out that Thalia was badly injured and she hadn't told any of them except Nico only because he was there—it all bubbled out into laughter that turned to hiccups. He sank to the steps, expertly flipping his weapon end-over-end, catching the coin in his palm and pocketing it. Jason buried his head in his hands.

Bianca sat down next to him and wrapped him in a one-armed hug. "Hey, Percy will be okay. From what you've told me, he's survived a lot of stupid stunts. This is just the latest, right?"

Jason laughed, sounding much less desperate, more genuine.

"And besides, he has Annabeth and another son of Poseidon and Grover with him. If Annabeth can't keep him under control, no one can," Bianca said.

"Thalia can," Jason mumbled into his lap. Bianca was rubbing his back comfortingly.

"Thalia and Mom," Bianca agreed. "And now Annabeth. Or rather, Mom and Thalia and Annabeth, if you want to go in the order of when he met them."

"CDO," Jason said.

He looked up, a smile on his face, to see Bianca's face, who looked disapproving but her lips kept twitching upward.

"I don't think that anyone can control Percy," Bianca admitted. "He just lets himself be guided by those he lo-loves," Bianca stuttered to a stop, her eyes going wide. "You don't think—"

"Absolutely," Jason said, snorting. "That will be the oddest couple in demigodly history. You saw the way they were on the train last winter, didn't you?"

"I was busy trying to avoid the Romans," she admitted.

"They fell asleep on the third night, balanced on that little hook thing between cars," Jason said. "I have no idea what happened between them, but Thalia freaked out when she opened the door and Percy fell backwards out of a sound sleep onto the floor of the car. Annabeth was woken by her shriek, and Percy woke up to hitting the floor."

Bianca giggled.

"They did that a lot," Jason told Bianca. "Percy vanished once for five hours straight in the middle of the night. We found him in the observation car asleep in the chair next to Annabeth the next morning."

Bianca covered her mouth.

"I don't know why Nico didn't tell you, because he told me, but we passed this city with a whole bunch of 'magnificent architecture' and Annabeth was babbling on and on about it and then she would drop in random facts and I have no doubt that Percy understood one word in three, but she kept passing him blue jelly beans and he looked happy," Jason told her. "When we flew home, he gripped the seat so hard that it splintered, and Annabeth grabbed his hand to keep him from accidentally destroying the chariot, and he grabbed onto her hand instead."

Bianca laughed aloud. "You should see his father's face."

Jason sat up and twisted around. Poseidon's face was a mixture of shock and disbelief. Hades looked torn between laughing at his brother's face and following his brother's example.

"Athena won't be happy," he finally said weakly. "Actually, I have no idea if she'd like that idea."

Hades decided to go for laughing at his brother's face. "That's definitely a match made in the Underworld."

* * *

 

"Percy has disappeared," Sally clarified. "Annabeth came and got him in the dead of the night and sneaked him on the most dangerous quest in over a century. Did I get that all right?"

Wincing, Thalia nodded.

"I'm not going to blame you, Thalia," Sally told her, laughing a little. "We all know that Percy has had the best training that the mythological world can provide, and he has almost a full eight years of that training. He is with quite possibly the smartest teenager on the planet, an experienced satyr, and a Cyclops who just so happens to be his half-brother. Just because we're all worried about him doesn't mean that he isn't _fine_."

Thalia thought that she was trying to convince herself more than the rest of them.

"And someone has a new sibling," Sally added. "And to be honest, Nico, Bianca, I hope that he or she isn't your sibling. We're still getting ashes and glass pieces out of the carpet from four weeks ago."

Bianca winced. "I didn't—"

"I know you didn't mean to, B, but having one more person with dangerous powers in this building and the place will probably explode," Sally said gently, giving the twelve-year-old a one-armed hug.

Bianca buried her head into her adopted mother's shoulder. "I don't know how to control it."

"I don't think anyone does," she said dryly. "And Thalia has had twenty years to figure it out. Hey, remind me to tell you the story of when Gabe was still around and Percy made the sink go through the roof at dinner tonight, okay?"

Thalia burst into laughter. " _That's_ a story worth hearing! Don't worry, B, Jason's still alive, isn't he? He's a little singed around the edges, but alive."

The daughter of Hades smiled. "Dinner, and then we can track down the Fish Face?"

Thalia's grin could've lit up the dark side of the moon.


	8. Hazel Levesque

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a DUO (Demigod of Unusual Origins) drops in on Annabeth and co.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very sorry for not posting last weekend. I have been battling off and recovering from pneumonia and strep throat. (FUN.)

Percy dreamt.

Actually, he wasn't sure if it was some sort of vision or what, because he knew that he wasn't at Camp Half-Blood, and he knew he hadn't approached the green-eyed girl from the war room who had sat next to Annabeth, back before the last quest. So it was either a really wacky dream or a vision.

Whatever it was, Percy watched himself practically _bounce_ over to the green-eyed girl. Her back was to him, and she was kneeling on the ground, planting something in her garden, her wavy dark brown hair getting in her face. Her hands were coated in a fine layer of rich soil as she brushed her hair out of her face, a streak of dirt going across her forehead.

Percy's dream-self hummed a series of notes, an odd half-smile—almost a smirk—on his face. The girl, without looking up, said, "Hi, Martín."

"Oh, Martín is at Camp as well?" Percy watched himself ask. "Is this the same Martín who you regularly challenged and got beat every time?"

The girl whipped around, and Percy's breath caught. _Katie Gardener_ was at Camp?! God, she'd changed, no wonder he hadn't recognized her! Gone was her childish, rounded face, that softness in her emerald green eyes. High cheekbones and a laughing glint replaced her child-like features. Her skin had darkened several tones, and her muscles were lean and well-defined.

"Damn, Jackson," Katie said in disbelief. "Ten months and you grew six inches."

"Six years and you're practically unrecognizable," dream-Percy countered. He privately agreed with himself. "I didn't recognize you last winter. Why didn't you say anything?"

"You show up with Thalia and Jason with two more in tow and you want me to bring up the old Academy?" Katie asked dryly. "The Academy that neither of us were allowed to train in, I might add."

"Thalia got trained, and in turn trained us," Percy said, shrugging. "She had a rushed course. She still thought that she would be the Prophecy person."

Katie ran a dirty hand through her hair, exhaling. "We all did." She hesitated. "What now?"

Percy shrugged. "Either the Prophecy comes true for me, or it passes onto Hazel. If not Hazel, then Jason. If not Jason, then Bianca. If not Bianca, then Nico. If it's not Nico, then someone has a sibling that none of us know about. _Again_."

_Hazel?_ Percy wondered.

"So the rumors are true," Katie said, surprised. "You did find another demigod in the Labyrinth."

Percy nodded. "Cousin of ours. Daughter of Hades."

"What is it with Hades breaking that oath?" Katie said, exasperated.

Percy's dream-self shook his head, a wry smile on his face. "Hades never broke the oath. Hazel's in the same boat as her half-siblings. She's from the nineteen-forties as well."

The dream dissolved into a swirl of colors, and Percy was still frozen in shock.

"Wake up, you Seaweed-Brained _idiot_!" someone hissed in his ear.

Percy lunged for the sound, half-awake and still lodged in the shock of the vision, slamming the person against the wall with his forearm on the intruder's throat.

He blinked open his eyes. Annabeth's half-awed, half-furious face filled his vision. Percy immediately released her. "Sorry, Annabeth," he apologized. "Kinda startled me."

Grover stared at Percy. "You got the drop on her. You actually took her down. In three seconds flat, as well. _And_ you were half-asleep."

"His eyes were closed," Annabeth said in disbelief, massaging her throat. "Your eyes were closed. How on _earth_ did you do that?"

Percy rubbed his temples. "That casino you told me about, Annabeth, what was it called? The one that you and Luke and Grover got stuck in when you were searching for Lightning Arse's Bolt?"

Looking startled at the question, she said, "The Lotus Hotel and Casino."

Percy swore an oath. The wall sprung a leak from between two bricks, a little trickle of water spouting out. He didn't seem to notice. "No _wonder_ they're so powerful. I just thought that they had an affinity for their chosen elements, but _noooo_ …"

"What are you _talking_ about?" Annabeth asked, baffled.

"They're ninety years old because they got trapped in that casino," Percy groaned. "And they haven't aged a day."

" _Who_?" Annabeth and Grover finally demanded.

"Hades's kids," Percy said. "All three of them. Oh, and Katie Gardener, damn, that girl is going to get herself into trouble with that mouth one of these days… Gods, so much makes that much more sense, we need to get out of here—where _is_ here, anyway?"

Tyson hadn't said a word until then, but now he spoke up: "Arena. He wants us to play in the games."

Percy looked like he was realizing that 'games' weren't referring to Monopoly. "Gladiator games," he guessed flatly. "Against each other?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Against monsters. Hades has three kids? And they're all from the 1940s? That's insane!"

"Unlikely," Percy agreed. "Not impossible. Bianca and Nico were in the Casino for three weeks—I didn't realize _which_ Casino until now. Hazel…I don't know. Maybe some other time-warp area. I don't know. I just know that Hades never broke the oath. He just went around it."

"And what's that about Katie Gardener?" Grover asked. "She's a nice girl."

Percy burst into laughter. "She's nice right up until you irritate her. Then you have someone equal to myself."

"You're a Big Three kid," Annabeth said doubtfully.

"And she's my cousin, isn't she?" Percy countered. "Look, no one knows the extent of the Demeter cabin's power because they're peaceful. I _grew up_ with Katie. If she received the same training that I had—and she did, I know that, she recognized the signal—she could pummel me into the ground if she had the right motivation."

A fully-grown Cyclops stepped into the room, hate in his single eye. "You next," he said, pointing at Tyson.

"I'm going first," Percy objected, his eyes hardening.

"He go first," the Cyclops grunted, turning back.

Percy shrugged. "He'll get me whether he wants me or not."

"What? Why?!"

"Because, I have a habit of getting out of tight spots," Percy said, paraphrasing Annabeth's words from before, a smile on his face.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Okay, yeah, you have the best survival chance, but—"

The Cyclops marched back into the room and made a move to grab Tyson, and Percy neatly stepped into it. "You no monster," the Cyclops muttered.

"You can go to Tartarus or you can take me," Percy said coldly, a knife coming from seemingly nowhere and levelled at his heart. Goosebumps appeared on Annabeth's arms.

The Cyclops froze at the touch of cold metal. "You come," he muttered.

Percy dropped the knife into his boot again.

* * *

 

The raven-haired son of Poseidon stepped into the arena, his eyes immediately taking in his surroundings and noting the exits and bottleneck areas, the chains and the skulls, and the completely random banner of Poseidon.

"A demigod," a fat man said disapprovingly. "I thought the Cyclops was coming out first?"

"I took his place," Percy said coolly.

The man grinned. "You wish to die first?"

Percy shrugged. "I have a higher chance of survival than most."

With that cryptic message, the gate creaked open. A _dracaena_ marched into the arena, armed with a weighted net and a trident. Percy glanced at the man incredulously and dropped into a battle stance.

The dragon-woman seemed to falter at the sight of Percy crouching there with no visible weapons in sight, and then picked up speed, going for an easy kill. Faster than some thought possible, Percy grabbed the trident levelled at him and shoved it upwards, knocking the monster off-balance and kicking her chest. He spun the trident that he had obtained, cracking the non-business-end against her skull, bashing her head in. She dissolved into dust.

Percy turned to the fat man again, his head held high, the trident butt planted into the sandy floor. "If you're going to play gladiator games with me, at least give me a workout," he drawled.

Whispers started going around the packed arena:

"… _Poseidon_ doing here?

"…that was awesome…"

"…looks like doesn't have a care in the world."

"Never seen her disarmed that fast…"

" _Silence!_ " boomed the fat guy.

Quiet reigned. Percy half-expected crickets to start chirping.

"You want a challenge?" he asked.

"I thought that you would have more than fat cells in your head," Percy said, smirking. " _Yes_ , I'd like a challenge. Or is Ethan calling the shots and you're just his bodyguard?"

"I am _no one's_ bodyguard," he growled.

Percy grinned. "I wish you could go tell that to Polyphemus. 'No one' is close enough to 'nobody', yeah? So he might go for you instead of Nobody."

"I am not an idiot," he growled.

"Really?" Percy said, feigning surprise. "Well, then, let's talk. I'm sure that we could strike a deal. How about, I duel your toughest minion, and if I win, my fellow prisoners and I walk free. I lose…" He shrugged. "Well, I'm dead, aren't I? You get seafood for dinner."

The fat guy slowly began to grin, his yellowed teeth showing wave-like indentations into the bone. Jeez, was this guy obsessed with Poseidon or what? Probably would make brushing after meals pretty tricky. Assuming he brushed at all.

"You're immortal," he said dryly. "Not entirely fair, now, is it?"

Percy glanced at him, bewildered. "I really look that much like my father? Jeez, you're like the twentieth person to mistaken me for Poseidon. My name is Percy Jackson, not Poseidon."

There was a dumbfounded silence. Then noise exploded.

" _SILENCE!_ " the fat guy roared. The monster-audience quieted. "Well, brother, I think I will duel you."

He stood up, and Percy averaged his height to be about eight feet. "Alright," Percy agreed.

"How rude of me," the fat guy said after dropping into the arena. "My name is Antaeus."

Antaeus cracked his knuckles, and charged.

Percy skipped two steps to the right, safely out of the way of the rampaging giant. Antaeus, faster than Percy anticipated, skidded to a stop in the dusty floor and turned on his heel, lashing out with his fists.

The son of Poseidon looked a bit concerned as he neatly dodged the strikes. He'd fought giants before, and he knew that bigger meant slower. Jason was starting to bulk up while Percy stayed lean. The extra mass caused him to slow down even a fraction of a second, and Percy was starting to win more than he lost. Needless to say, Jason was frustrated.

With that in mind, Percy flipped straight up into the air, Riptide creating a deadly arc around his balled body. He landed on his back and rolled to the side as Antaeus aimed a kick at his ribs before exploding into sand.

Then, slowly, the sand began to reform into the eight-foot Antaeus.

Percy stashed Riptide away hurriedly before calling on the water around him and directing it with the force of a firehose at the vulnerable mound of sand. Mud splattered across the arena.

Another minute, and nothing happened. Percy turned towards Ethan coldly. "You heard Antaeus. I and my fellow prisoners are free."

"Antaeus is dead," Ethan returned flatly. "His promise dies with him."

Monsters erupted in the stands, lunging towards the son of Poseidon. The ground erupted into an earthquake.

Percy froze, along with all the monsters. "Go!" a girl with curly hair yelled. "Get to the far exit!"

He rushed down to the dungeons and sliced the cage open, dragging the three of them out. They were the only ones, so Percy didn't have to worry about any others.

"Far exit!" Percy yelled over the chaos.

"Are you doing this?" Annabeth yelled in amazement.

"No," Percy denied. "Hazel! Get out!"

The curly-haired girl whipped around, startled. As they ran past her, Percy picked her up and threw her over his shoulder like a fireman. "Seal the arena behind us!"

Percy poured on the speed, bringing up the rear behind Tyson, Grover, and Annabeth, and he felt Hazel thrust her arms upwards. Stone cracked against stone with a sound like thunder, and goosebumps covered his arms and torso as he could sense her raging power.

"Ha-Hazel," he stuttered. "Reign it in, please."

Fear erupted in her like a punch in the gut, and he nearly dropped her as she suddenly fought to be free. " _Stop_ ," he ordered.

She froze.

He ran on.

* * *

 

Annabeth finally sagged against a wall, breathing hard. The walls were solid rock and slick with moisture.

"Cave," Percy noted tiredly, setting Hazel on her feet. "Hi, I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. Sorry about the sucky meeting place."

"You're my cousin," she marveled. "Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto."

Annabeth let out a tired laugh. "Another one for your group, Perce," she said softly. "Roman, huh?"

Hazel glanced at Percy, baffled.

"We're Greek," he explained. "Normally we don't mix, but the Big Three's kids and whoever's close to them are pretty much the exception."

Grover banged his head against the wall, snickering tiredly. "You have no idea how much trouble those five have stirred up since they came here."

"I'm only here because Annabeth dragged me along," Percy said ruefully. "That's Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, don't let her blonde hair fool you."

Annabeth scowled at him.

"That was a compliment, don't get so grouchy, jeez," Percy grumbled. "Grover Underwood's the one with the curly hair, he's a faun."

"Satyr," Grover corrected absently.

"She's Roman, Grover, I'm trying to make it easier," Percy said. "And the tall one's my half-brother, Tyson, he's a Cyclops, but he's pretty sweet. Just watch out for his hugs. He tends to like to squeeze the air out of you while cracking a few ribs."

"What are you doing here, in the Labyrinth?" Hazel asked curiously. "You're the second group of people down here that I've seen, and the last one was almost a year ago."

"We're on a quest," Annabeth said. "We need to find Daedalus, but we're getting nowhere."

"Oh, that's easy," Hazel said, looking at the walls as if to get her bearings. "Count sixty-five doorways on the left and take the next one on the right, keep going until you find a window, climb through it, and then take an immediate left, that door should be right in front of you."

Annabeth looked dumbfounded. "How did you…?"

"You've probably found the Roman mural by now, haven't you, with the dead fountain?" Hazel questioned.

The four nodded.

"Take three immediate rights and go a left and you'll wind up in there again," Hazel told her. "Hang out in here long enough and you know how to get around. The Labyrinth _is_ magic, it's unpredictable to a certain extent, but each place has a code sequence. Some you can only get to by going through obstacles, like to get to Daedalus from New York, Manhattan, you have to take an immediate left, go three doors on the right, take another left, go through the arena that you guys just went through, sixty-five doors on the left, take the next right, climb through a window, turn left, and find the door."

"We came from Long Island," Percy admitted. "But nothing as simple as that. We have no idea how to navigate the Labyrinth."

"I didn't know that there was a way that you _could_ navigate the labyrinth," Annabeth muttered.

"It's night outside," Hazel told them. "Time goes slow in this area. We could camp here for a week and only a day and a half would pass outside."

"Sleep!" Tyson voted instantly.

"Sleep," Percy agreed.

"Sleep," Grover said through his yawn.

Annabeth looked like she wanted to argue for a moment, but nodded after a second's hesitation.

"I'll sit watch," Hazel said softly.

* * *

 

When Percy woke again, Hazel was still sitting watch.

"Hey," he said softly, scooting closer.

"I've never had any close relations besides my mother," Hazel said, her smile evident in her voice.

Percy chuckled. "It was the same for me until Thalia and Jason found me in the middle of nowhere. I didn't want to talk to you about this in front of the others, but how did you go through the time warp?"

Hazel froze.

"Your half-siblings belong in the nineteen-forties as well," Percy hastened to reassure her. "They got put in a casino for three weeks in 1942. When Alecto got them out, it was 2007. Lord Hades sent the three of us to rescue them from Westover Hall in Maine."

Hazel let out a muffled sob at the date, 1942.

"Oh, gods, I said something insensitive, didn't I?" Percy muttered as he gathered her in a hug. "What'd I say?"

Hazel pulled herself together and began her tale, interrupted only by her own half-suppressed hiccups.

"I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana," she said softly. "When I was little, I used to make diamonds and precious metals come to me just by walking over the ground they were buried under. My mother's life and my own life was good. When I was eight, my mother pawned a gold bracelet. The next day, the shop owner got his arm ripped off by a harvester. Again and again, every time Marie gave a jewel or piece of metal to someone, something would happen. Adults steered clear of me. When I went to school, the other kids bullied me and drove me away. I couldn't even blame them.

"On my thirteenth birthday, my father visited me. I was sitting on the front steps when he appears out of the darkness." Percy smiled wryly, thinking of Nico. "He gave me a pad of paper and some colored pencils, saying he was sorry for his curse. Then he just…walked away. I wanted to run after him, screaming, kick him in the shins…anything that I could do to make him feel the pain that I'd gone through." Percy bit his lip at the thought of this tiny girl kicking Lord Hades in the shins. "I went back up to the apartment that my mother had rented for us. My mother was a fortune teller, I was used to her putting on a show for her clients, I could hear her talking in another voice…I thought she had another client, but she didn't. The apartment was empty. The things she was saying, 'safe there, far from the gods', and then in her regular voice, 'too cold, too dangerous, he told me not to', something like that. Then the other voice said, I could never forget those words, 'what has he ever done for you? He gave you a poisoned child! But we can use her gift for good. We can strike back at the gods. You will be under my protection in the north, far from the gods' domain. I'll make my son your protector. You'll live like a queen at last'."

Hazel choked back a sob. "My mother, for a second, seemed to worry about me, asking, 'what about Hazel?'. Then, in unison, both of them agreed: 'a poisoned child'."

Percy had practically pulled her onto his lap and had his arms wrapped around her waist, listening, just listening.

"My father barged in and they argued. My mother grabbed the vase that was kept near the door—thousands upon thousands of precious gems that I'd collected over the years—and smashed it, spilling the jewels across the floor. I remember him watching sadly, and then all of a sudden she's screaming at him to get out, and he—he just waved his hand, and he dissolved into shadows. I didn't know that he was a god at the time, I knew my mother had summoned him, not thinking that the old _gris-gris_ charm would work on him, so I assumed he was a spirit, but after meeting him on the steps, I thought that she had exaggerated, and then that came and I wondered if he really had been a spirit."

"That night, we left New Orleans, and we went to Alaska, to a little town called Seward, right on the edge of Resurrection Bay." She snorted. "Oh, the irony."

"My mother was continuously possessed by this spirit that she agreed with, and always at night, only at night. She dragged me to this island in the middle of the bay that the mortals couldn't see or even run into. She threatened me, encouraged me, pushed me to my limits, and I—I rose her son, her greatest treasure. I couldn't lose my mother, no matter how horrible she was.

Hazel took a deep breath. "Summer, 1942," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I stayed out later than I realized, chasing a horse. I came home to the dirty place we owned to have everything trashed, my pad of paper ripped to pieces and all my colored pencils broken. The mattress was on the wall and ripped as if a wild animal had attacked it. On the last piece of paper, something had written a note that was not my mother: ' _foolish girl. Meet me at the island.'_ I went to the island."

Hazel took another deep breath. "I had risen the Voice's son. The only thing left to waken him was a willing sacrifice. My mother was free from the Voice's control. All she had to do was reach out and touch the spire of gold that I had created, and her life force would be sucked into the body that I had created. She turned to me, gave me a hug, told me that I did her proud, and reached to touch the spire. I grabbed her and hugged her, and I brought the island down. I died that summer, drowned in the oil that had run in his veins as blood."

Her golden eyes finally lifted to search his sea-green eyes. "There was no time-warp for me. I stayed in the Underworld for seventy years before breaking out a year ago."

"Why would you want to break out?" Percy muttered. "You had to have gone to Elysium."

She shook her head. "I gave it up to get my mother a lighter sentence. She was going to the Fields of Punishment. Instead, we both got Asphodel."

Percy closed his eyes and hugged her tightly. "Oh, Hazel…"

They sat together like that, for a long time.

* * *

 

Percy dreamt of rowing a canoe. Then a raven landed on the stern. It cocked his head at him. "Tonight," it said. "The last night."

Unwillingly, Percy wondered if that was a threat or a promise. He decided to take it as a promise.

"Are you from my father?" Percy heard himself ask.

The raven pecked the prow of the boat. "Tonight. The last night."

Then it squawked and flew off.

_The last night,_ Percy thought determinedly. _No matter what she tells me, I will_ make _this the last night._

The boat slid ashore of an island that Percy hadn't noticed. He'd been a bit preoccupied with the talking bird. It crunched through a fine layer of ice and black silt.

Percy got out of the boat and followed a well-worn trail into the woods. He stuck to the center of the trail, knowing the island was full of dangers, both natural and magical. Bears rustled in the undergrowth. Glowing white spirits, vaguely human, drifted through the trees. Percy didn't know what they were, but he knew that they were watching him, hoping he'd stray into their clutches.

He arrived at the center of the island, two massive black boulders flanking the entrance to a tunnel. He climbed down carefully, the air growing warmer, energy thrumming through the place with a steady, but subtle _boom, boom, boom, boom_ , like a heartbeat. _The Heart of the Earth,_ a name popped up in his head.

He came to a cave, and was bombarded by slight perceptions. This place was alive. The earth was asleep, but it pulsated with power. Its dreams were so malicious, so fitful, that Percy felt himself losing his grip on reality.

Gaea wanted to consume his identity, just as she'd overwhelmed Hazel's mother. She wanted to consume every human, god, and demigod that dared to walk across her surface.

_You all belong to me,_ Gaea murmured like a lullaby. _Surrender. Return to the earth._

_No,_ Percy thought. _I'm Percy Jackson. You can't have me._

A dark-skinned woman stood over the pit. Her hair was as grey as lint. She was thin. Her hands were gnarled from hard work. She wore snow boots and waders and a stained white shirt from a diner. _She never would have been mistaken for a queen_ , a thought drifted across Percy's consciousness.

"It's too late."

With a shock, Percy realized that he was staring at Hazel's mother. Her voice was so frail, but it echoed through the cavern. He realized that this was the end that Hazel had told him about. Gaea had released Hazel's mother.

"Mother?" Percy asked.

Marie turned. Her eyes were open. She was awake and conscious. This should have made Percy feel relieved, but it made him all the more nervous and saddened. He knew that the Voice had never relinquished control while they were on the island.

"What have I done?" Hazel's mother asked helplessly. "Oh, Hazel, what did I do to you?"

She stared in horror at the thing in the pit.

For months, he knew, Hazel and her mother had been coming here, four or five nights a week as the Voice required. Hazel had cried, she'd collapsed with exhaustion, she'd pleaded, she'd given into despair. But the Voice that controlled her mother had urged her on relentlessly. _Bring valuables from the earth. Use your powers, child. Bring my most valuable possession to me._

At first, her efforts had only brought scorn. Now Percy could see how much Hazel had accomplished in a couple of months.

The thing was two stories high, a swirl of rocky tendrils jutting like a spear tip from the oily morass. Inside, something glowed with heat. Percy couldn't see it clearly, but he knew what was happening. A body was forming out of silver and gold, with oil for blood and raw diamonds for a heart. Hazel had resurrected the son of Gaea. He was almost ready to wake.

Hazel's mother fell to her knees and wept. "I'm sorry, Hazel. I'm so sorry." She looked helpless and alone, horribly sad. Hazel should have been furious. Percy _was_ furious. _Sorry?_ She'd lived in fear of her mother for years. She'd been scolded and blamed for her mother's unfortunate life. She'd been treated like a freak, dragged away from her home in New Orleans to this cold wilderness and worked like a slave by a merciless evil goddess. _Sorry_ didn't cut it. She should have despised her mother.

But Percy could feel that she couldn't make herself be angry.

Percy knelt and hugged Hazel's mother. He now realized that he was re-living Hazel's memory, with himself as Hazel. _He_ certainly wouldn't have hugged the woman.

"What can we do?" he asked. "Tell me how to stop it."

Hazel's mother shook her head. "She let me go. She knows it's too late. There's nothing we can do."

"She…the Voice?" Hazel's hope rose. They could run away, back to New Orleans. "Is she gone?"

Her mother glanced fearfully around the cave. "No, she's here. There's only one more thing she needs from me. For that, she needs my free will."

Neither Hazel nor Percy liked the sound of that.

"Let's get out of here," Percy urged. "That thing in the rock…it's going to hatch."

"Soon," her mother agreed. She looked at him—Hazel—tenderly. Hazel couldn't remember the last time she'd seen that kid of affection in her mother's eyes. She felt a sob building in her chest.

"Pluto warned me," Hazel's mother said. "He told me my wish was too dangerous."

"Your—your wish?"

"All the wealth under the earth," she said. "He controlled it. I wanted it. I was so tired of being poor, Hazel. So tired. First I summoned him…just to see if I could. I never thought the old _gris-gris_ spell would work on a god. But he courted me, told me I was brave and beautiful…" She stared at her bent, calloused hands. "When you were born, he was so pleased and proud. He promised me anything. He swore on the River Styx. I asked for all the riches he had. He warned me the greediest wishes cause the greatest sorrows. But I insisted. I imagined living like a queen—the wife of a god! And you…you received the curse."

Hazel was not the only one feeling miserable. "That's why I can find things under the earth?"

"And why they bring only sorrow." Her mother gestured listlessly around the cavern. "That's how _she_ found me, how she was able to control me. I was angry with your father. I blamed him for my problems. I blamed you. I was so bitter, I listened to Gaea's voice. I was a fool."

"There's got to be something we can do," Percy said. "Tell me how to stop her."

The ground trembled. Gaea's disembodied voice echoed through the cave.

_My eldest rises,_ she said, _the most precious thing in the earth—and you have brought him from the depths, Hazel Levesque. You have made him anew. His awakening cannot be stopped. Only one thing remains._

Hazel clenched her fists. Percy wished he could stop the dream.

"I won't help you anymore!" she screamed at the goddess.

_But I am done with your help, girl. I brought you here for one reason only. Your mother required…incentive._

Hazel's throat constricted. Percy held his breath. "Mother?"

"I'm sorry, Hazel. If you can forgive me, please—know that if was only because I loved you. She promised to let you live if—"

"If _you_ sacrifice yourself," Hazel said, realizing the truth. "She needs you to give your life willingly to raise that—that _thing_."

Percy let out a half-strangled sob.

_Alcyoneus,_ Gaea said. _Eldest of the giants. He must rise first, and this will be his new homeland—far from the gods. He will walk these icy mountains and forests. He will raise an army of monsters. While the gods are divided, fight each other in this mortal World War, he will send forth his armies to destroy Olympus._

The goddess's dreams were so powerful, they cast shadows across the cave walls—ghastly shifting images of Nazi armies raging across Europe, Japanese planes destroying American cities. Hazel finally understood. The gods of Olympus would take sides in the battle as they always did in human wars. While the gods fought each other to a bloody standstill, an army of monsters would rise in the north. Alcyoneus would revive his brother giants and send them forth to conquer the world. The weakened gods would fall. The mortal conflict would rage for decades until all civilization was swept away, and the earth goddess awakened fully. Gaea would rule forever.

_All this,_ the goddess purred, _because your mother was greedy and cursed you with the gift of finding riches. In my sleeping state, I would have needed decades more, perhaps even centuries, before I found the power to resurrect Alcyoneus myself. But now he will wake, and soon, so shall I!_

Hazel knew, with terrible certainty, that Gaea needed a willing sacrifice, a soul to be consumed. Her mother would step into the fissure, touch the spire, and be absorbed.

"Hazel, go." Hazel's mother rose unsteadily. "She'll let you live, but you must hurry."

Hazel knew. Gaea would let her live to see the end of the world, knowing that she had caused it.

"No." Hazel made her decision. "I won't live. Not for that."

Percy felt her invisible hands reached deep inside her soul. He stumbled from the sheer force, the amount of power she had at her disposal. She called on her father, the Lord of the Underworld, and summoned all the riches that lay in his vast realm. The cavern shook.

In the pit, oil bubbled, then churned and erupted like a boiling cauldron.

_Don't be foolish_ , Gaea said. Percy thought that it was probably supposed to be condescending, but it sounded more concerned (for herself), and maybe even fearful of Hazel. _You will destroy yourself for nothing! Your mother will still die!_

Hazel almost wavered. Percy could feel it, he saw bits of pictures: her father, some golden stallion that moved way too fast to be possible, a crazy-looking Latino boy, New Orleans. Thirteen short, bitter years with an unhappy ending.

She met her mother's eyes. For once, her mother didn't look sad or angry. Her eyes shone with pride.

"You were my gift, Hazel," she said. "My most precious gift. I was foolish to think I needed anything else."

She kissed Hazel's forehead and held her close. Her warmth flooded through Hazel and Percy, and he felt like he'd just been hugged by his mother. Another sob wrenched its way out of him.

The air turned searing hot. The spire began to sink. Jewels and chunks of gold shot from the fissure with such force, they cracked the cavern walls and sent shrapnel flying, stinging Hazel's skin through her jacket.

_Stop this!_ Gaea demanded. _You cannot prevent his rise. At best, you will delay him—a few decades. Half a century. Would you trade your lives for that?_

Hazel gave her answer.

_The last night_ , Percy remembered.

The fissure exploded. The roof crumbled. Hazel sank into her mother's arm, into the darkness, as oil filled her lungs and the island collapsed into the bay.

* * *

 

Percy lurched awake and was violently sick the moment he sat up.

" _Percy_!" Annabeth yelped.

He hunched over, sobbing helplessly, his head bowed.

Hazel pulled him away from the vomit and hugged him. "I'm sorry you saw that," Hazel murmured. "I didn't mean for you to see that."

He couldn't talk, he was sobbing so hard.

"Dear gods, Percy," Annabeth said, shaken. She wrapped him in a hug as well.

"I know," Hazel whispered to him, hugging him tight. "I know."

* * *

 

Miles away, Thalia Grace was surrounded by her family as she sobbed much the same way as Percy.

"Is Percy okay?" Jason asked softly, tense.

At long last, Thalia got her crying under control. "He was having one of his demigod dreams. He found your sister. Your sister…your sister died in 1942. She defeated the oldest goddess of them all and her son in a couple of minutes. She sacrificed herself and her mother doing it. He was there, he was Hazel, his eyes, oh, gods, his eyes…"

She clung onto Sally tightly.

"Our sister is dead?" Nico said, stricken and confused.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I don't know. It seems like it, but with us, coming back from the dead is not _that_ unusual."

Sally let out a weak laugh.

"Gods, Percy, come home already," Thalia prayed into Sally's shoulder.

"Don't we all wish," Sally murmured into her ear.

* * *

 

Athena barged into the Olympian Throne Room, a vindictive smirk on her face, directed at her father.

"You know, you're gaining less and less popularity," she whispered, the sound carrying through the air nevertheless. Her voice rose: "What with the Big Three group, anyway. Why are you so insistent on breaking them up? Are you _trying_ to doom Olympus?"

"My own daughter hates me," Zeus seethed.

Athena arched an eyebrow and stopped, her grey cloak settling around her combat-boot-covered ankles. She was next to the hearth. She could vaguely see Hestia nestled among the glowing embers, glaring, unimpressed with Zeus's attitude. Athena, uncharacteristically of her, snickered at the look on her favorite Aunt's face.

"For good reason," Athena pointed out calmly, reconstructing her stern expression, combing a stray curl out of her face. "You ignored her after you left her mother. She and her brother were left with an abusive woman, Zeus. Hades's realm, Father, you rescued your own siblings from such an environment, although on a larger scale. Why would you let your daughter be subject to that?"

He looked as though she'd physically slapped him.

"Hera is jealous and hurt of all the children you have sired over the years," Athena continued, ignoring the look on his face. "You have champions, a close tie with the mortal world. She dislikes the children she has had with you for the most part, and with her being the goddess of marriage, it just isn't in her nature to go out and cheat on you, as it is with yourself."

Zeus groaned and closed his eyes, banging his head against the back of his throne. "Why?"

Athena, for once, wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"All you're doing is pushing our method of survival away with that stupid law," Athena said airily. "Makes me wonder how many wars we need to go through before you realize that."

Zeus's head snapped towards her. "Plural?"

"Oh, at least two," Athena confirmed, her eyes like grey chips of steel. "If not three. You really should watch the quest more closely. Hades's escapee prolonged great-grandmother's rise, along with her eldest son's."

Fear dawned on Zeus's face.

"Quite," Athena said, a smirk on her face. "You screwed up, Father. Quite badly. With our children, with our family, with the world in general. The Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II, that's just in the past two centuries. Now we have a second Titan War and a second Giant War coming up within the next decade, if we're lucky. Within the next three years, if we aren't."

"Three years," Zeus repeated, his head bowed.

When he raised his head, Athena's heart leapt into her mouth. His eyes were a bright electric blue—the same as his daughter's. His mouth was set into a grim line, filled with determination and passion.

She hadn't see that look in a thousand years.

He rose, his shoulders set and his back straight, his head held high. "When the quest ends, call for a War Council meeting," he told her.

He strode to the gates to the Throne Room, and paused. "Have all the groups out there send delegates. The Big Three group and the Hunters need to be there in full force, they know about both sides. The Romans, two demigod delegates, the same for the Greeks, and one from the centaurs." He paused again. "One that is not Chiron, he will be there anyway. Lupa will be there as well, in her human form, stress that to the Mother, please."

"The friendly Cyclopes?" Athena prompted.

"Have them send one delegate," Zeus said, nodding slowly. "All the friendly creatures, actually."

Athena raised her eyebrows at the huge task. "Alright."

"Have Iris, Hermes, and Nike help you," Zeus said, recognizing what her hesitation was about.

"Yes, milord."

Zeus continued on, his now-bright-blue eyes thoughtful.

Athena sank into her throne, letting out a shaky breath, a smile climbing onto her face.

"Are you alright, niece?"

The goddess of wisdom looked up to see Hestia climbing from the embers, looking concerned. She stood and grasped the eldest child of Kronos's forearms in greeting, smiling widely. "Your youngest sibling is back," she whispered in glee.

Hestia's flame-filled eyes widened, and a smile stretched across her face. "Olympus better watch out," she said, a mischievous smirk stretched across her face.

"The _world_ better watch out," Athena corrected, her own grey eyes alight.

Hestia suddenly laughed and swung the younger woman around. Athena laughed aloud, feeling her hair fly out behind her. "Father's preparing for a War Council after the quest is finished," she told her aunt breathlessly after Hestia stopped spinning. "I'm to get delegates from all the friendly creatures to attend."

"Several I can gather after night falls," Hestia said solemnly, a smile still playing around her lips.

Athena grasped her forearms in thanks. "I will come back later. I have quite a bit to prepare for."

Hestia raised her hand in farewell. "Good luck, niece," she said softly, sinking back onto her hearth, prodding the fire.

"And to you, aunt!" Athena called over her shoulder.

* * *

 

"Just what on Olympus, earth, and Hades did you say to my brother?" Poseidon said behind her, sounding amazed.

"I told him the blunt truth," Athena said, turning, swiping hair off her forehead and leaving a streak of ink, a fountain pen in her hand.

"You've got ink on your forehead," Poseidon pointed out dryly, handing her a damp cloth. "What did you say? It had to be something rather profound to get this reaction from him—I haven't seen him like this in at least a millennium."

Athena accepted the cloth, scrubbing her forehead. "I told him what his wife feels, why she wanted to enact that ridiculous law that all of us have been protesting since it went into effect. I told him that the law was only useful if you wanted to drive our method of survival away, and in the next ten years, maximum, we would need every survival method that we have, because we have two, if not three or more, just on the horizon."

Poseidon went as white as the sheet of paper Athena had been writing on. Athena got up and pushed him into a seat, looking vaguely concerned. "Three or more?" he whispered.

She nodded, sinking back into her own seat. "The Second Titan War will happen within a year, it will be your son who fulfills the prophecy," she said matter-of-factly. "Grandfather is rising too quickly for it to be Jason or Bianca's prophecy. The Second Giant War will start anytime from the end of the Second Titan War to a decade from now. Possibly, if this goes wrong" –she gestured to the various pieces of paper scattered on her desk– "the restarting of the Civil War, and if the minor gods continue to be ignored, the restarting of the Revolutionary War as well."

Poseidon closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face. "What is it with prophecies and my sons?" he whispered, half-laughing, half-sobbing.

Athena shrugged, honestly not sure herself. "Father is calling for a War Council after the questers return. Delegates of the friendly creatures will be coming to the War Council. This is a mandatory meeting, just so you know."

Poseidon nodded slowly and rose. "Thank you, Athena."

"I just gave you two the kick up the ass that you needed," Athena said nonchalantly.

Poseidon burst into laughter. "I guess I deserved that," he said ruefully.

"You sure did," she said cheerfully. "Now scat, I have work to do. Nope, wait, when you go back to your kingdom, hand this to the head Cyclops. I would give one to the dolphins, but I don't know how to get them to Olympus."

"Dolphins and mermen I can take care of," Poseidon reassured her.

"I never thought of the mermen," she muttered, magically copying a form and writing _mermen_ in the blank. In another, she wrote _dolphins_. She rolled up both scrolls and sealed them. "Here," she said, handing him the scrolls. " _Now_ you can go away."

Poseidon managed to stifle a snort until he was out of earshot.

"What's funny, Unc?" Apollo asked curiously.

Poseidon rolled his eyes. "Athena just sounded like a child, or perhaps a mortal teenager."

Apollo's baby blue eyes seized upon the scrolls in Poseidon's hands. "What are those for? I never see you with scrolls."

"Athena, again," Poseidon said, looking at his nephew. "You know about the War Council?"

Apollo froze. "Father's actually holding a War Council before things get desperate?"

"Athena gave him a verbal kick up the ass."

His nephew laughed aloud. "About time someone did that!"

"War Council is after the questers return," Poseidon informed him. "Expect quite a few people and creatures, and a lot of arguing. We're going to attempt to stop a war before it starts."

"That's bizarre," Apollo muttered.

Poseidon smiled. "Olympus just might survive the next decade."

* * *

 

They made it halfway. Hazel shifted uncomfortably as they stopped. "Can we keep going? That tunnel is stinking of death."

"Reassuring," Grover muttered. "Percy, am I the only one who senses it?"

"Kronos rising," Tyson rumbled. "I sense it too."

"This is the Titan headquarters," Percy realized.

"Why would they have it in a _volcano_?" Hazel asked, confused.

Annabeth looked alarmed. "That leads to a volcano?"

"Mount St. Helens," Hazel confirmed. "One of Hephaestus's favorite spots for his forge. Lots of heat and lots of protection. He's suspected that they've been using it for headquarters for a while now, but they can always sense his presence and flee. They can feel me coming because of my tie with the earth."

"Pretty hard to sneak up on," Percy summed up.

"We need to see if we can figure out if we can chop up Kronos into more pieces and toss them into the lava," Grover pointed out reluctantly.

"I can do it," Annabeth said thoughtfully. "I don't have any strong ties with the earth. And I have my invisibility cap"

"I'll come with you," Percy spoke up. "I never really got into the ground-thing, I've always been more of water and water vapor guy."

Hazel marveled at him. "You're completely comfortable with saying something totally crazy out of context."

"That's hardly the weirdest thing he's said," Grover said, snickering.

"I don't even want to know," Annabeth muttered, jamming her hat onto her head and vanishing from view. "C'mon, Percy, before I get infected."

Percy snickered as he followed her into the side door.

He fell silent as they crept along, the air increasingly hot the farther they went. They came to a fork.

"You, right, me, left?" Percy hissed the suggestion.

"Gotcha," she whispered back. "Meet back here in five minutes. Or whenever something goes wrong."

"This is a suicide mission," Percy muttered to himself.

"You just noticed?" Annabeth hissed.

"Yes, I know, I'm an idiotic Seaweed Brain," Percy whispered, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, shut up."

Percy edged along the platform, warily looking over the edge at the bubbling and hissing lava hundreds of feet below. "Pleasant," he whispered to himself. He noticed the bars underneath the platform.

No one was in sight for ages until he smelt something unpleasant.

"It needs another cooling in blood," an inhuman voice said, just barely distinguishable above the lava.

"Aye, and it will be even sharper than before," another said.

_Burnt blood,_ he thought. That was the smell. He'd smelt it often enough on himself. And Jason had smelt like it after Bianca had attacked him.

Percy crept closer, flattening himself to the ground. _Telkhines!_ his mind screamed in shock. _And a six-foot curved something-or-other…that looks like a scythe. Damnit! Damnit, damnit, damnit!_

He ran as silently as possible. Percy came to another fork. One had a cart in front of it. The other didn't. He took the one that didn't.

It was empty except for a golden casket that radiated cold. It was a shock after the inferno behind him.

_We need to see at least if we can chop Kronos into smaller pieces and throw him into the lava,_ Grover's voice rang in his head.

Percy strode over, warily looking for guards. There were none. He touched the lip of the casket. His fingers turned blue with cold.

He swallowed.

And shoved the lid off.

His breath clouded the air as he looked at the body in the casket in confusion.

Why was _Ethan_ in there?

Footsteps.

Percy dove behind a column.

Someone shrieked. He prayed it wasn't himself.

"The casket! Milord stirs?!"

No answer.

"Present him the half-blood, imbecile."

"Whoa, wait, what?"

"There will be no blood sacrifice, idiot," the second voice said scathingly. "Just pledge your allegiance to Kronos and renounce the gods.

_Second one, maybe, first one, no,_ Percy thought to himself.

There was a thump. He thought it was a fist hitting a chest. "I renounce the gods! What have they ever done for me?"

_Probably nothing,_ Percy guessed. _Don't worry, dude, it's not just you._

"I will see them destroyed! I will serve Kronos."

_Not so cool._

The room plunged another thirty degrees. In the casket, Ethan sat up and opened his eyes—he had both eyes now. Both of them were a brilliant gold. The telkhines and the demigod who pledged his allegiance trembled and fell to their knees.

Ethan climbed out of the casket with the grace that Percy only associated with an immortal—immortals that were usually female, actually.

"This body has been well prepared," Ethan said, his voice like rocks being ground together—ancient, evil, and steeped with darkness.

_Oh my freaking gods,_ Percy whimpered in his head.

Ethan turned unerringly towards Percy. "Do you like it, Perseus Jackson?"

"Not really," Percy said mildly. "It'd probably look better with the eye patch again. And without the gold eyes. The gold eyes are pretty creepy."

Ethan's—Kronos's—eyes flared in annoyance. "Did you really think that the King of the Titans would tolerate such blatant insolence?" he practically growled.

Percy shrugged nonchalantly, his heart pounding. "I piss off your sons on a regular basis, normally all three at once, I can't possibly think that _you're_ worse than all three of them together, _Gramps_."

_You're such an idiotic Seaweed Brain,_ Annabeth's voice told him, half-hysterically.

_That's something I excel at, Wise Girl,_ Percy snarked back at her.

Kronos seemed to be at a loss for words, either stunned by his idiocy or speechless with rage, Percy couldn't tell. Percy bolted for the door.

Miraculously, he made it through the doorway, down the hall, and to the first fork before he ran into trouble. He nearly tripped as Annabeth's voice hissed at him, "What did you _do_?"

"I pissed off the Lord of the Titans," Percy gasped out. "Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't swing Riptide first and ask questions later."

Annabeth squeaked. "He's alive?!"

"And oh-so-very-mad," Percy confirmed. "Go, get out of here, there are bars on the underside of the platforms, you're good at monkey bars, I remember that from our crazy adventure in May."

Annabeth groaned. "Don't let this be our last one, got it, Jackson?"

"Why, Chase, I could swear I heard some fondness in that voice of yours," Percy gasped out, mock-surprised.

"Oh, shut up, Seaweed Brain," she grumbled. Invisible hands grabbed his shirt and she kissed him full on the lips. He stumbled to a stop and grabbed her invisible shoulders, sinking into the kiss. She pulled back after a moment. "Don't die," she said weakly.

Percy shook his head, drawing Riptide, half-wishing that his first kiss wasn't in the middle of an upcoming battle so that he could enjoy it longer.

Telkhines blocked two exits while Kronos strolled leisurely down the third.

"Time to die, Jackson," Ethan smirked. "At first I believed that I could sway you over to the Titan's side, and then I realized that I would end up killing you because of your smart mouth."

"It tends to run away with me sometimes," Percy agreed. "Speaking of running, is your refrigerator running?"

Kronos stopped dead in confusion.

"If so, you better go catch it!" Percy said cheerfully. He raised Riptide straight into the air, and sea-green energy crackled from its tip like green lightning. Percy held it there for a second, and then plunged it into the platform, an unholy scream forcing its way through his lips as he drained his soul dry.

The earth shook, a whirlwind of power whipping around Percy and knocking the two telkhines back into the boiling, hissing lava below.

He turned and ran, the platform crumbling behind him.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled, standing, safe on firm ground, holding out her hand desperately. Percy scrambled forward faster, his deadened legs feeling like tree stumps. The mountain shuddered, and he fell, scrambling to his feet, and he lunged towards Annabeth's hand as the platform crumbled under him.

He missed.

He fell.

And the volcano erupted below him.

He flew.

_Just like Jason,_ he thought blearily.

And then he fell to earth, fire and rock and his last vestiges of power clinging to him as he made his rapid descent.

* * *

 

Annabeth fell to her knees in shock. Hazel let out a muffled sob.

He'd protected her at the cost of his own life.

That hissing barrier of sea-green energy that protected the four of them from being char-broiled when the volcano erupted, even after he was most certainly dead.

That image of him reaching toward her as he fell into the lava hundreds of feet below.

That image of his _face_ —so unguarded, so full of emotions—fear, determination, _love_ …

"What have I done?" she whispered.


	9. Calypso Atlasdottir

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Percy is alive. Well duh.

Percy woke feeling like he'd been fried, thrown on the ground, and then left there for a week. He groaned embarrassingly loud as he sat up slowly.

"Dear gods," he mumbled, prying his eyelids open. They were crusted with salt and practically glued together.

"You really shouldn't be doing that," a feminine voice warned.

"I shouldn't be taunting Titans on a regular basis either, but I do that pretty regularly as well," Percy retorted. "Admittedly, this was my first time for blowing up a volcano. Where am I?"

She laughed a little, dabbing his face with a cool, damp cloth. Percy almost flinched away, not expecting her proximity. "You're in Ogygia," she said softly, a lilt of amusement flowing through her voice.

Percy blinked, trying to think. "English-speaking, so not Indonesia or Greece. Doubtful of a random island near Britain. Can't think of any islands near Washington off the top of my head. Thus has to be a magic island. Ogygia, Ogygia, Ogygia…I'm not getting anything," he finally admitted.

"The lava fried your brain," she chuckled. "My name is Calypso."

"A name I recognize," Percy said dryly. "Sorceress. One of the nicer ones, I think."

"You think?"

"You like asking loaded questions, don't you?"

She laughed aloud. "I apologize. I've had to cope with Lord Apollo flirting with me every other day for a century now."

Percy cringed. "I'm all of a sudden very thankful that I'm not a girl."

He stood, swaying a bit. Calypso moved forward, alarmed. "You should not be standing."

"I should not be _alive_ ," Percy corrected her. "I still don't understand how I am. How long have I been out?"

Her face fell. "Hard to tell. Time is meaningless here. Perhaps three days? Maybe more? I do not know."

Percy chewed on his lip, thinking. He knew that Annabeth, as well as the rest, would believe him dead until they went and found Thalia or the others. Three days could mean that they were still traveling in the labyrinth, or had already long been at Camp and had found out about his lack of separation from his body. He apologized silently to Hazel, who definitely wasn't used to his near-death adventures, and to Annabeth, who had just kissed him and then had seemingly gotten himself blown up.

He judged himself. He was weak. Shaky. He'd lost twenty pounds and he hadn't an ounce of fat on him before the volcano. What he'd done at Mount St. Helens had taken a heavier toll on him than he'd realized.

"Two days," he said finally. "Not counting this one."

"You leave in two days?" Calypso said softly, not joking anymore.

Percy bit gently at the inside of his lip, looking distracted. He sat back down on the cot. "When I came here, I'd just been blown out of a volcano. I had made that volcano erupt to save my friends and char Kronos' minions to ash, hopefully along with Kronos himself, but I doubt that I did that, however nice the thought would be. I need to go back, yes, but I don't need to pass out the minute I get there."

"They're your friends, they can take care of you," Calypso told him.

"I have a prophecy riding on my head," Percy told her gently. "I'm supposed to be the strong one. I hate it, but the fact is that if they see me like I am now, they'll be demoralized and lose whatever battle is taking place."

She stood, running a critical eye over him. "You're right, you are a hot mess."

Percy snorted with laughter.

* * *

 

**_Two days earlier…_ **

There was a knock on the Jacksons' door. Thalia answered it blearily, newspaper still in hand.

The remaining Big Three group had taken up to buying every newspaper they could get their hands on and scouring it for any strange occurrences. The day before, Mount St. Helens had erupted. Bianca had screamed in fear when she read that.

Thalia's eyes flew wide open when she realized that Annabeth and a dark-skinned girl were standing in the doorway. "Are you okay?" she asked, first seeing their faces. Then her heart sank when she realized the implication of their faces. "Is Percy okay? Where is he?"

"Per-Percy died saving us from Kronos," Annabeth whispered, her eyes closed and shoulders quivering ever so slightly.

Thalia blinked. "Percy's not dead," Thalia told her gently, wrapping her in a hug. "C'mon, let's come inside. You too, miss."

The eldest of the Group practically had to carry Annabeth into the kitchen and set her into a chair, fixing some hot cocoa. She sprayed a whole mound of whipped cream over it and drizzled it with nectar. She set a cup firmly in front of each girl.

"Let me guess, the idjit had something to do with Mount St. Helens erupting and half a million people evacuated?" Thalia guessed.

The girl with curly hair stared at her in surprise.

"It was all over the newspaper," she explained. She spread a nearby newspaper in front of the two girls. "Like this one. Three others have similar articles. But what on earth did he do to make you—specifically logical Annabeth—think that Percy's dead?"

Annabeth stared into her cocoa cup. "Percy was the one to make the volcano erupt."

" _Holy Hera_ ," Jason exclaimed in surprise. " _Percy_ made the volcano erupt?"

"Shut up, Jason," Thalia said sharply. "They think Percy's dead, you don't need to get all excited about it."

Jason opened his mouth, bewildered, but Thalia shot him a look and he shut it with an audible click.

"Right. Go on," Thalia prompted.

"The platforms above the lava collapsed," Annabeth said, getting quieter and quieter. "I tried to catch him be he was too far away. He fell just as the volcano erupted. He saved our lives with that weird barrier he set up."

Thalia nodded, that was typical of the Gold Fish. "How long did it last?"

Annabeth hesitated. "Until after the volcano finished erupting."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "And you think he's dead? I never thought I'd ever say this to you, but are you _stupid_? Percy was not only alive but conscious as he was blasted out of the volcano! He might be drained dry, badly hurt from the impact, marooned somewhere, who knows, but he's quite definitely alive."

" _I kissed him,_ " Annabeth whispered softly.

Jason waved her off. "Eh, he'll get over it."

"Jason!"

"What? It's not like they haven't been dancing around each other since the train on the last _official_ quest, and that was like a year ago! His brain probably melted from the pent-up emotions if the lava didn't get to him first!"

Annabeth went beet red. The curly-haired girl snickered. "His tongue did seem a little loose afterwards, Annabeth."

"Oh, shut it, Hazel," Annabeth grumbled.

"He told Kronos to go chase after his refrigerator if it was running," Hazel told her dryly.

Jason, who'd been leaning against the wall, slid sideways, fell, and hit the floor because he was laughing so hard. Thalia sputtered out a surprised laugh, and then downright guffawed. "Thalia Grace," Thalia said, grinning.

Hazel stuck out her hand. "Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto."

Thalia shook her hand with a wide grin. "Hey, girl, welcome to the club. I'm a daughter of Zeus. The idiotic blond on the floor is my brother, Jason, son of Jupiter. When you're quite finished with the theatrics, bro, could you go get Nick and B?"

Jason gasped in mock-hurt and proceeded to 'faint'. Thalia rolled her eyes and gave him a swift but gentle kick in the behind. Jason opened his eyes and glared at her half-heartedly. He poked her, and the distinct sound of electrical discharge echoed in the small space.

"Hey! No electricity the kitchen!" Sally called. "Take it to the living room if you must! We just got the last scorch marks off the walls from the microwave blowing up because of you two!"

Jason shrugged, got off the floor, and went to go get the Hades kids. He came back a couple minutes later.

"Hi," Nico offered. "I'm Nico di Angelo, son of Hades."

"Bianca di Angelo, daughter of Hades," Bianca introduced herself.

Hazel smiled. "Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto."

Bianca's eyes widened in surprise. "I—I thought…?" She turned to Thalia, confused.

Thalia shrugged. "Ask your father, he probably knows more than me. I just had the dream."

Hazel arched her eyebrows. "What is it with you people and dreaming about me? Percy did it as well."

Thalia winced. "If it makes any sense, I was having a dream about Percy having a dream about you about six or seven days ago. Since he's…usually right about that sort of thing…I paid attention. I never realized how disorienting it was for him."

It was Hazel's turn to wince. "I'm sorry you had to see that. Not the cheeriest moment of my life."

"From what I could gather, your life wasn't very happy overall," Thalia said, smiling sadly. "The time frame you were born in was even worse."

"Speaking of time frames," Annabeth said slowly, her fingers turning her hot chocolate mug absently, "Percy had a dream. A vision, actually. I think he's a Seer, from what he described of that vision. But he realized that all of the Underworld's kids were from the 1940s."

Goosebumps stood out on Bianca's skin. Nico paled a little.

"You were put into a casino in Las Vegas, probably for three weeks or so," Annabeth told them hollowly. "To be specific, the Lotus Hotel and Casino. When I was twelve and Luke was nineteen and Grover who knows, we went on a quest to retrieve Zeus's Master Bolt, which had been stolen by Ethan the previous Winter Solstice. Long story short, World War III was just barely avoided by a matter of hours. But along the way, we made a pit stop in Las Vegas. We entered the Casino. Luke was able to break the spell of the casino, his dad the patron of magicians, and dragged Grover and I out of there. We'd been there for an hour, tops. When we came out, though, five days had passed."

Thalia's hair stood on end. "That's some serious magic," she muttered softly.

Annabeth nodded, her darkened eyes glued to her mug. "People had been in there for decades. There were people from 1971. 1995. 1986. I think I actually saw Nico when I was there, dragging Bianca away from whatever trivia game you were on. You spooked me when I first saw you, Nico, because I knew I'd seen you someplace with some serious magic going on, but I couldn't place it. It wasn't until Percy questioned me on the Casino and told us about the Underworld kids—that all of you were from the 1940s—that I knew where I'd seen Nico before."

"It bothered you that much that it stuck with you for ten months?" Thalia questioned incredulously.

Annabeth shrugged sheepishly. "It was a puzzle. And, to be honest, I couldn't just march up to one of you and interrogate you—at the time I was still a little hostile towards you."

Thalia's lips twitched. "Yeah, just a bit. You managed to tick off Percy the first time you met him, and that takes some doing."

Hazel's lips twitched.

* * *

 

"Your garden is beautiful."

Calypso whirled around, startled. Percy was standing a couple feet behind her, staring in awe at the sheer volume of plants. The sunset's orange glow highlighted features on his face, and he looked inordinately powerful, despite the makeshift cane he was leaning on.

"How did you—it's been mere hours, Percy, you should not be walking around!" Calypso scolded. Her red dress wrapped around her ankles as she swiftly stood up and turned, guiding Percy to a half-hidden bench and practically shoving him on it.

"I have ADHD," Percy told her dryly. "That means that I get really bored really easily. Have anything for me to do?"

Calypso stared at him, blinking.

Percy poked her. "Hello? Calypso? You in there?"

"You want to do something when you should be passed out," Calypso clarified slowly.

Percy shrugged. "Something like that, yeah."

She exhaled, studying him critically. "If you're going to be staying here for two days, then you need a hat. Speaking of which, I need a new one as well."

Calypso looked ruefully at the broken and bent wide-brimmed straw hat that hung around her neck.

Percy's lips quirked up in a smile. "Yeah, you kinda do."

She gave him a look, and then asked, "You know how to make a hat?"

He shrugged. "Nope. I've never had to make one."

"Well, you need one here," she said firmly, gathering up long strands of straw.

* * *

 

"You would love the Demeter cabin, back in New York," Percy said, smiling as he watched her work.

Calypso sat back on her heels and looked at him curiously. "New York?"

Percy frowned. "Right, you've been imprisoned here for ages."

And he started to talk, telling her about the mortal world and the variety of people and landscapes and climates. He told her about the evolution of technology (as far as he understood it), all the history facts that he could remember, starting from the dawn of Greece up until the twentieth century. He told her about the prejudices in both mortal and mythological societies.

It was probably the most he'd ever talked in one sitting. But he had a rapt audience, when she wasn't gardening. And even when she was, she listened, formed opinions, and asked questions, to which Percy would answer to the best of his ability, and if he didn't know, he would tell her so, instead of giving her possibly wrong information.

"I'm surprised Apollo never told you anything about this," Percy remarked, swirling the water in his glass absently.

"Hermes tells me the most of the mortal world," Calypso answered his unspoken question.

"He would be a better candidate to ask about technology," Percy agreed. "I don't use it much because of the monsters."

"Mm," Calypso hummed in agreement, digging her fingers through the soil. A little piece of hair fell into her face, and she wiped it away, a dark streak forming across her forehead.

"Calypso," he said slowly.

"Yes?" she asked, sitting back.

"Why haven't you left? Why couldn't one of your previous visitors take you away from here?" Percy asked, not sure if he was infringing on something personal.

Calypso sighed. "There is only one boat that goes from here to the mortal world, and it's enchanted to never leave if I am on it. Several have tried. All have failed."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's stupid. All you need to do is build another boat."

"Yes, because that's so simple," Calypso said sarcastically.

"Think about who you're talking to," Percy told her, smirking. "I might actually just stay another day to build up my strength and then we can ride out of here on a block of ice."

"Ice," she said blankly.

Percy held up his glass and froze the water in it. Then he turned it upside down, and the ice slid out and plopped into his hand. "This is ice," he said. "It's frozen water. Water does this when it gets really really cold."

Calypso reached out a hand to touch it, and the jerked it back. "It's cold!"

"Yeah, that's what I just said," Percy said, his lips twitching. "It's great for cooling off though."

Calypso looked at him as if he were crazy. "That thing's _freezing_!"

Percy started to laugh. "That's the point of cooling off!"

* * *

 

"Well?" Percy demanded. "Go on."

They had ditched the ice floe idea and simply went with lashing several logs together in a crude raft. Percy had stuffed the cracks with all the seaweed he could find, telling Calypso that seaweed had natural air pockets that would provide a little more buoyancy.

(Calypso had no idea what buoyancy was, but she went along with it anyway.)

Calypso stepped onto the raft, feeling the waves rock the raft beneath her. "This feels weird," she said, having to sit down.

Percy shrugged. "You'll get used to it."

He stepped on after untying the raft from the shore. The waves, heeding Percy's call, steered the raft away from the shore.

Hours passed, and Percy felt the freshwater change to saltwater. Percy let out an exultant whoop, leaping up and nearly flipping the raft. "Camp Half-Blood!" he ordered, a broad grin stretched across his face.

They were somewhere the Atlantic Ocean. Percy thought that they were north of Bermuda, which would explain the cooler temperatures than from before.

But they had successfully broken Calypso out of her prison. And they were on their way to Camp.

* * *

 

**_The day before…_ **

Hazel had become increasingly twitchy over the past three days. Everyone noticed it. Thalia finally had to ask: "What's up?"

"Kronos and his army are trying to march on Camp Half-Blood, bypassing the wards via the Labyrinth," Hazel muttered.

"The Camp is prepared against the attack," Annabeth reassured her. "If they manage to find it, they'll be walking straight into a trap."

Hazel snickered. "They're walking around in random paths. They're trying to use maps, but those never work in the Labyrinth."

Annabeth grimaced, knowing full well _that_ fact.

"They are getting closer, though," Hazel said, her expression dimming. "Slowly, in a really roundabout way, but they are getting closer."

* * *

 

Percy and Calypso washed up on the shores of Camp Half-Blood a day later. The Big Three group and Annabeth were at the Camp, preparing for the inevitable battle against Kronos and his army.

The forest was alive with activity, especially around Zeus's Fist.

The son of the sea guided Calypso through the Camp, which was eerily empty, pointing out the Demeter cabin, the armory, the Pegasi stables, and the Big House, to which they were walking towards. Normally Percy would run or jog, but he still needed the help of the cane for walking long distances, and the cane kind of impeded him when he tried to run.

Percy walked into the Big House, checking several rooms where someone might be, before checking the rec room and walking into a counselor meeting.

Annabeth shrieked (a sound that he never thought that he'd ever hear come from her mouth), and promptly kissed him. Then she punched him, hard. "What were you _thinking_ , you—"

"Seaweed-Brained idiot," Percy finished her sentence with a long-suffering sigh.

"Told you she'd kiss you and _then_ hurt you," Calypso said smugly.

"It's not my fault that I'm not a girl and thus do _not_ understand how a girl's mind works!" Percy protested, hugging Annabeth with one arm and greeting his family with the other. "Hey, guys, I'd like to stay upright, I'm still not doing so hot. Yes, hi Nico, I'm not dead, you of all people should know that, Bianca you're in danger of catching fire, Jason please do _not_ touch me while you have lightning going between your fingers, and Hazel I really am all—Thalia…can't…breathe…"

"You're _such_ a stupid…freaking… _Goldfish_!" Thalia berated him.

"Okay, got it…can I breathe now?" Percy wheezed.

Thalia let him go, and he had to let go of Annabeth and grab the doorframe, gasping. Calypso silently offered the stick that served as his cane for the moment, a smile playing around her lips, looking around at all the people.

Percy pushed himself off the doorframe, steadying himself and wrapping a hiccupping Hazel in a one-armed hug. "I'm sorry, you haven't gotten used to my death-defying stunts yet, have you?"

He wasn't being sarcastic for once, he really didn't like his family crying on his behalf. The last time that happened he was eight and a half and Thalia had been half-hysterical when he finally limped back to the camp a day and half later.

"What's the cane for?" Thalia asked sharply.

"Can't support myself very well when I walk," Percy told her. "Cane worked the best. Another couple days and I should be fine unless I blow up another volcano between now and then. Then I'm screwed."

"You're screwed already, you massive idiot," Annabeth huffed.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Right. I was like, five or six days ago. How long have I been gone again?"

"Eight days," Chiron said.

Percy's eyes bugged out, and turned to Calypso. "I thought you said it was three days!"

"It's hard to tell, you found that out yourself!" Calypso protested.

"Wait, who are you?" Bianca demanded.

Percy smiled. "This is Calypso. She was trapped on basically a magic, time-warping island for a couple thousand years. I apparently crashed just off the shore and she healed me of what she could."

"And you brought her back with you?" Annabeth said skeptically.

Percy turned to Thalia, his face the picture of exasperation. "Okay, Thals, I've got a question about girls: what is it with them and asking loaded questions?"

Some snickers.

"It's a test of intellect," Thalia said snootily, her nose in the air. "This is how we determine if you're a dumb, annoying boy or just an annoying boy. First question is identifying said loaded question. Second is answering it correctly without angering the questioner or the audience."

Katie Gardener slammed her head on the Ping-Pong table, laughing helplessly.

Percy sighed and turned back to Annabeth, obviously thinking. "Yes, I brought her back because the guys before me were obviously the dumb, annoying kind of boys, since all they had to do is be a son of Poseidon and make a boat that wasn't enchanted to go nowhere if she was on the boat."

Calypso raised an eyebrow behind him. Annabeth was having a hard time keeping a straight face, between Thalia's answer and Percy obviously taking Thalia seriously.

"I seriously hope that was sarcasm," Nico remarked.

"Only a little bit sarcastic," Percy allowed, nodding. "I'm not sure if the son of Poseidon thing was really necessary, but since I'm the only one who achieved it, there's nothing I can test to do it again, since I don't think that she'll want to go back there for a while yet."

Calypso raised another eyebrow at him, another one that he didn't see.

"You're such a Seaweed Brain," Annabeth sighed.

Percy nodded, looking faintly amused. "Yeah, I think I got that the first time, when you screamed it in my face."

Annabeth cuffed him upside the head.

* * *

 

"How did you guys know that Percy wasn't dead?" Annabeth asked curiously.

Thalia froze. Percy choked on his food. Nico and Bianca looked vaguely uncomfortable. Jason paused in chopping up the carrots. Hazel ran a hand through her hair.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "That bad? Spill."

She noticed that the six of them either looked at Thalia or Percy for help.

"I say that she's trustworthy, but she's my girlfriend and therefore I'm a bit biased," Percy said, his voice hoarse from choking. "And besides, she knows about the Greek-Roman thing and hasn't gone crazy on us yet."

" _Yet_ ," Nico grumbled.

"Hey, after us, she was the first one to know about the split in over a century and a half," Bianca pointed out.

"That's tame compared to this," Jason argued.

"You guys have barely told _me_ ," Hazel agreed.

"All you're doing is getting me insanely curious," Annabeth said dryly.

Thalia looked guarded. "If we tell you, you can't tell anyone. Not the Athena cabin, not the dryads, not the naiads, not the satyrs, not a mortal, not Chiron, not the gods, _nobody_."

Jason poked her. "The gods probably already know."

"And if they don't, all the better," Thalia told him.

Jason shrugged in agreement.

* * *

 

"Your son, Poseidon…"

"Is absolutely insane, yes, Zeus, I am quite aware of that," Poseidon told him dryly. "And so is your daughter, for that matter."

The god of the sea turned, still marveling at the changes in his brother that a few well-placed words wrought.

"He broke out Calypso."

"He blew up a volcano, survived the shockwave _and_ falling who-knows-how-far, befriended Calypso and broke her out, and is now telling his girlfriend about something that even we never figured out until the incident with Atlas," Poseidon reeled off the list. "Yes, my son is quite insane. Though he is quite talented at doing the impossible."

Zeus rolled his eyes. "I was actually going to ask you how he did it."

Poseidon laughed. "He built a raft that wasn't cursed to go nowhere with her on it. Amazing how centuries of heroes never thought of that."

"Must have gotten his brains from his mother," Zeus said dryly.

Poseidon gave him a look, but it was kind of ruined by the fact that he was smiling wryly. "What did happen, on that mountain top?"

Zeus shook his head. "I do not know. I was distracted by Hera. When I looked back, Atlas was bleeding heavily and screaming curses at your son while my two were unconscious and your son was nearly so."

"And Hades wouldn't be watching at that time," Poseidon sighed. "Not until Percy was eleven."

"I guess we won't know," Zeus said ruefully.

"I tried asking," Poseidon said dryly. "He first freaked out and then started screaming at me."

"He has a healthy set of lungs, I'll wager," Zeus muttered.

"Just like your daughter," Poseidon agreed.

* * *

 

"Percy found it accidentally," Thalia said bluntly, cooking abandoned. "He was nine. We got turned around, wound up in the middle of California on Mount Othrys, just as Atlas broke free from the sky with a seventeen-year-old girl holding up the sky in his place. We had originally been in Colorado—I had been given official training that wasn't improvised moves from the monsters I'd seen and beaten, and in turn I taught Percy and Jason. One of the people in the Academy accompanied us—he was a legacy, grandson of a daughter of Demeter, so his powers weren't great, but he was the one who trained Percy. Jason and I were knocked into oblivion within seconds of the fight."

"I'd been thrown against the floor like I was a ragdoll and a two-year-old was having a temper tantrum with me in their hands," Percy said dryly. "Damien was the one to hold Atlas off until I could gather my strength."

Jason continued the story. "He was so desperate that he not only gathered his strength, but he took ours with him, through the link of our fathers' powers. Percy's the cornerstone of us. He combines the air—Thalia and I—with the earth—Bianca, Nico, and Hazel."

"We can't do it constantly," Bianca said, seeing Annabeth's mouth open, her mind obviously swimming with questions. "It's hard for Percy to maintain it, and he has to be within our immediate vicinity."

"And the more power that's used while keeping it going, the longer we sleep, and the worse the headache is when we do wake up," Jason said dryly.

"We only do it when there's literally no other choice," Thalia told her. "We do it, or we die."

Annabeth looked like there was a figurative lightbulb coming on. "The more of you there are, the more power you have at your expenditure, and the less tired you are, because an equal amount of power is drawn from all sources that are connected. That explains why you passed out immediately after making that storm at Westover Hall—because you only had three sources—whereas at Hoover Dam you had five and you only fell asleep immediately after settling into the truck, even though Nico and Bianca didn't really do all that much."

"It also relies on a lot of trust," Percy told her. "At Westover Hall, we didn't know if Nico and Bianca were trustworthy. And they didn't know us and were understandably wary after they realized that us and your group were quite hostile, which was especially evident after you practically blew up in my face and accused me of killing Clarisse. In Mount St. Helens, I didn't know Hazel well enough to trust her, despite the dream of her past. And Hazel didn't know what I was capable of, and if she didn't know and didn't trust me, all that would happen is that I would get a headache and lose my concentration and you guys would be fried anyway."

Annabeth and Hazel winced.

"But it worked with Thalia and Jason because they both trusted me at the time, despite me being nine and generally nine-year-olds don't make the best decisions," Percy said dryly.

"But with demigods the regular rules kind of go out the window…" Annabeth nodded.

"I knew he could sense my power," Hazel admitted. "It scared me."

"You nearly kicked me in the nuts while I was trying to save you," Percy told Hazel dryly. Annabeth snickered. Jason crossed his legs surreptitiously. Nico edged away from Hazel.

Hazel's face and neck darkened. "Sorry," she squeaked.

"So," Annabeth interrupted, saving Hazel from further embarrassment. "What you can do is extremely taxing, can only be used in life-or-death situations, relies heavily on trust and willingness, and if something goes wrong all six of you would probably implode. On the other hand, you have access to five other people's large reserves of power, but only for a short amount of time. Did I get all that right?"

Six people blinked in near-synchronization.

"Well I'll be," Thalia huffed, impressed. "You _do_ understand the implications if we have to do that."

"If you all are doing that, we're all screwed," Annabeth summed up concisely.

"Exactly," Jason sighed. Bianca winced at the resigned tone. Nico watched her and Jason suspiciously.

"There is a reason why my father and his younger brother called for the Big Three to stop having kids," Percy explained. "At risk of sounding conceited, we're too powerful. We change fates, destinies, when we aren't even trying. Thalia, Jason, and I alone nearly leveled a small town in Arizona, trying to subdue a Chimera and a pack of hellhounds."

Annabeth paled at the sheer destructive power.

"I've gotten better at channeling the power, but the more people added, the harder it gets. Right now, if I tried to do it with all of us, including Hazel, I would be about as effective as _you_ trying to control a hurricane," Percy said gently. "You see why we don't do it? There's _nothing_ fun about feeling like you're a Tesla coil in the middle of a bunch of other Tesla coils, and you're expected to absorb it all and redirect it where it's needed."

Thalia grimaced at the description.

"Maybe a high on adrenaline," Percy corrected, thinking. "But that's about it."

Annabeth snorted.

* * *

 

"You fear your power," Percy said suddenly, when he and Hazel were alone. The younger girl whipped around, her golden eyes wide. "I even understand why. But I simply can't do anything when you won't let _yourself_ access your power, let alone me."

"Percy, I…"

Percy waited as Hazel opened her mouth and closed it like a landed fish. He finally asked: "Do you trust me?"

"With my life," she answered automatically.

"But not with your powers?" Percy asked softly.

She reeled backwards as if she'd been slapped.

"I—I—"

"You've had a hard life," he whispered, his hands sternly gripping her shoulders. "We all have, probably with the exception of Jason and Nico. I got that. My primary job in this group is training you in your powers. I can't do that with you."

Her golden eyes looked lost and broken, slightly glazed over as she remembered her previous life.

"I've killed people," she whispered.

"I am well aware," Percy said, steel entering his voice. "So have I. Not intentionally, of course. Just like you. Not my fault that monsters don't care who see them and where they are and I'm forced to act to save my life. When I was younger, I'd panic and I'd overreact. The results were always messy. Just like Thalia. Just like Jason. Just like you. Yes, I am _well_ aware of your unique…situation. That does _not_ mean that I won't shake you until I knock the idea that those deaths are your fault out of your head." He gave her a little shake to demonstrate.

He felt it—a little crack in her barrier. Percy wrapped Hazel in a hug and ruthlessly pried a mental chisel into the crack and blasted the barrier wide open. They both gasped—Hazel at her power being freed to run rampant, Percy at the volume of her power.

The ground shook, and Hazel stumbled, but Percy just widened his stance and leaned back raising a challenging eyebrow at Hazel, who had a look of wonder on her face and was definitely not paying attention. He carefully grasped her power, closing his eyes as he directed it less violently at the ground. Percy spun it back into Hazel, safely looping it back into her main core. Hazel relaxed in his arms.

"Go on," he whispered into her ear. "Try."

She swallowed, her brilliant golden power tentatively reaching for Percy's own sea-green core. He could feel the tug, and felt her drawing it back into her own body. Fast as thought, he hooked a strand of her power and drew it into his own body. Hazel went ridged.

"Disorienting, isn't it?" he whispered. "Suddenly having two reserves of power."

"It's so delicate," she murmured in awe. "How can something so destructive be so delicate?"

Percy relinquished her power, gently pulling back on his own. Hazel stumbled away from him, sinking into a chair that he'd placed there for exactly that purpose.

"So," he said with a soft smirk. "Are you going to let me in tomorrow, or do I still need to shake sense into you?"

A laugh—the first real, true laugh she'd ever done since she escaped.

* * *

 

Poseidon was not anticipating a frying pan connecting with his head when he appeared in the middle of the kitchen.

He staggered backwards from the sheer force, and silently put a hand to where it connected.

Seven pairs of eyes stared as he righted himself. Thalia was the only one not staring, and she was looking extremely sheepish. "My apologies, Uncle," she said, scratching her head with the frying pan awkwardly. "Do you need some water?"

"Sally…?"

The six demigods winced. "Paul," Percy said, taking the plunge, "this is my father. Poseidon, god of the seas."

The mortal was silent for a very long while. Then: "Well, I know why you're consistently perfectly dry after you've supposedly taken a shower."

Nico coughed, obviously trying not to laugh at the flatly said comment. Percy blinked.

"Yeah…"

"This isn't the way we were planning on telling you," Thalia told Paul. "It was supposed to be a lot less of a rude awakening."

"So _all_ of you are…?"

"Demigods," Sally agreed, taking Thalia's frying pan from her hand, rinsing it off, and then putting it on the stove. "Why do you think I keep extra doors and things in the extra bedroom? Monsters come crashing through here more often than I like to think about."

"Inconvenient, that is," Bianca grumbled.

"Is there something wrong, Uncle?" Jason finally asked.

Poseidon looked far too amused with the situation than was necessary, Percy thought. "My illustrious younger brother bids you to come to the War Council that will be officially starting at one o'clock tomorrow," Poseidon said dryly.

Thalia whipped her head around, stunned. "He's actually _doing_ something?"

"You may thank Athena when you see her," Poseidon acknowledged.

Hazel's golden eyes were flicking from Percy to Poseidon, noting their uncanny similarities. "I can see why Antaeus thought that you were your father, Percy," she said softly.

"Yes, he hasn't been the only one either," Percy said flatly.

"I can imagine so," Hazel told him thoughtfully.

"We'll be there," Bianca told her uncle reluctantly.

Poseidon vanished into a fine mist after nodding at her.

* * *

 

"Explaining that to Paul was…" Jason started.

"Excruciatingly painful," Bianca finished, rolling her neck.

Jason looked at her gratefully. "Thanks."

"Why do I need to wear this?" Nico grumbled, pulling on the breastplate.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "It's a War Council, Nico. We go to this in slacks and button-ups and we'll be ridiculed. It's also a show of power."

"There'll be Romans there," Percy added. "I think that they'll be letting the mythological worlds know of each other. They respect power. And since we've taken them out at least twice…"

"You _do_ listen," Jason said in surprise, looking at his cousin.

"Sometimes," Percy agreed, smiling a little.

The six piled into the van with clinking and cursing.

"Get your foot off my cape!" Thalia snapped.

"Uh, Nico, I'd watch where you put that elbow."

"B, your hair is coming undone," Jason said uncertainly.

 _CLANK_. "… _ow_. That was my _nose_ ," Hazel grumbled, stepping back, away from where she'd run into Percy.

"Are you sure your skull isn't made of bronze? 'Cause it sure sounds like it," Percy made a half-hearted attempt at humor.

"Your humor needs a serious revamp," Thalia told him.

"Oh, shut up, Airhead."

"Goldfish."

"Lightning Dolt."

"Kelp Head."

"We get it, you're both idiots, now let's get going before we're late," Bianca snapped, trying to fix her French braid.

Nico snickered.

* * *

 

Olympus, Percy thought, was bigger than words could describe.

Then again, he was talking about gods who could grow up to fifteen feet with a thought, so yes, most things would have to be big. Artemis' shrine—possibly one of the shortest buildings—was three times the height of Jason, who was the tallest of the group at solid five-foot-eight.

Thalia marched in front, her purple cape with the symbol of Zeus in light blue surrounded by the black Greek symbols for her name billowing behind her, closely followed by Nico with the symbol for Hades in black and his name in Greek, and Percy to his right with the symbol for Poseidon in a bright sea-green and _his_ name in Greek.

He'd asked Thalia why she'd insisted the capes were to be purple. She'd explained that purple was the color of royalty in the Classical Era, because it was the color was so hard to get and that only the wealthiest could get it because the dye was incredibly expensive.

"So this is another power play," he had said dryly.

"Exactly," she had confirmed.

Hazel followed behind Percy, a golden symbol of Pluto on her cape and her name in Latin. Bianca was next to her, behind her younger brother, her cape similar to Nico's but with her name in Greek. Following behind the two girls, Jason had the light blue symbol for Jupiter and his name embroidered in Latin.

The sextet arrived just as the gong sounded for one, Thalia pushing open the Throne Room's doors effortlessly.

All six scanned the enormous room, unsurprised at seeing the Romans and Greeks and their respective trainers—Lupa and Chiron. The two Praetors were easy enough to find—defended to the teeth and purple capes similar to the Big Three group's. There was another Roman, a skinny blond twig that reminded Percy of a demented Luke. Camp Half-Blood's ambassadors were Clarisse and someone Percy had seen briefly but didn't remember his name. Both wore the standard Camp Half-Blood t-shirts and breastplate, coupled with Clarisse's electric spear strapped to her back and his sword hanging from his belt, both wearing combat boots.

They were also unsurprised by the Hunters being there—seventeen strong.

However, they weren't expecting fifty different kinds of mythological creatures in the room, ranging from the Merfolk to some winged snakes that Percy would have sworn up and down were Egyptian.

"Are those…urai?" Nico asked Percy hesitantly.

Percy shrugged. "I thought so."

"Why are they _here_?"

"Who knows."

One of the snakes spat at the ground and there was suddenly a layer of ice where the saliva connected.

"Eh…never mind. Those aren't urai," Percy murmured. "Urai breathe fire, not spit ice. Probably one of Khoine's pets gone rabbity."

Thalia shot him a look over her shoulder. Percy shrugged sheepishly.

The group broke up slowly—Thalia wandering over to Clarisse, Jason and Nico going over to Hestia, Bianca being strangely friendly with one of the Hunters, Hazel chatting it up with a winged minor goddess that Percy thought was Nike, but wasn't sure.

"Part of the Elder Three Group?"

Percy turned to see a Hispanic girl in Roman armor with a purple cape. He nodded to her as a sign of respect. "Praetor. Yes, I am a son of the Big Three."

"You have evaded our search parties for years."

"Rome's previous Praetor had no idea how to handle an overprotective Thalia. I sincerely hope that we might mingle after all this is over."

Her eyebrows lifted. "Indeed?"

Percy's lips twitched. "I believe there will be some rather shocking revelations in this meeting."

The teen's eyes narrowed. "Good or bad?"

Percy shrugged. "Well, if you aren't open-minded, then it could be very bad indeed. Other news…well, this is called a War Council for a reason. You're unwittingly being a part of an anti-Civil War movement."

She arched an eyebrow. "Am I really?" Her tone was dry.

"Mm," Percy hummed in agreement. "Quite easy, isn't it?"

She nodded slowly, obviously thinking. "What is your name?"

"I go by Percy," he said swiftly.

"Reyna."

"Pretty name. Puerto Rican?"

"Mm."

Zeus stood, and the Throne Room quieted. "I have called this War Council because of the wisdom my daughter imparted upon me recently."

Reyna thought it was interesting that Percy's eyebrows lifted in surprise—surprise about what, she wasn't sure.

"War is coming," Zeus continued. "Not only our father—" he gestured at the six children of Kronos "—but also his mother, the Earth Goddess, is stirring in her sleep."

Percy shot a concerned glance at Hazel, who looked very pale despite her skin color.

Murmurs and cries at the statement.

"I also have called you all here today," Zeus raised his voice over the clamoring, "to hopefully prevent another war.

"The American Civil War. Most of you here know about its history, the way the South separated from the North, with California joining the North as well. Separate, they made the Confederate States of America and the United States of America, each referred to as the Confederacy and the Union respectively. What most do _not_ know—the Civil War was when our conflicting forms came to a head. That is to say, the Civil War was a war between two great factions, Rome and Greece."

The room fairly exploded into noise. Reyna suddenly looked at Percy, who was looking almost bored. "You knew about this, didn't you?"

"I live with two Romans and three Greeks," Percy told her dryly. "Yes, I knew about the division of the factions, but I didn't expect him to expose it to everyone now. This could be a very smart or a very stupid move on Lord Zeus's part."

"That's the Greek version?"

Percy nodded once. "This, mind you, is…unusual. I have no idea what Lady Athena said to get the info that— _hey, we really are fighting a war!_ —into his thick skull, but I respect her and commend her on her accomplishment."

Reyna exhaled, turning to the demented, now-raging Luke. "Octavian! Stand down!"

"Praetor, this is a trap! A deception! We've been tricked!"

Percy rolled his eyes. "If you don't like being tricked, then you obviously don't like living. Trickery is ingrained into humanity's very nature, so shut up. You've been deceived since the day you entered this world, and your mother, and your grandmother as well, assuming I haven't hit any goddesses in the picture."

Octavian opened his mouth and shut it, looking like a fish.

Reyna looked at Percy in frank awe. "Can I keep you?"

Percy looked highly amused. "I apologize, my girlfriend is still a bit clingy from the last time I nearly died, which happened to be about two weeks ago. Then again, so is the mother in our group." He pointed out Thalia.

"Two weeks ago? You look pretty good."

Percy grimaced. "Perk of being a son of Poseidon. If I hadn't been, I wouldn't be standing here. If the lava didn't kill me, the impact with the water would've."

Reyna rubbed her temples. "Hang on. _Lava_?"

"Yes, I was the one who blew up Mount St. Helens. Remember me?" Percy asked cheekily.

She swore violently and creatively. Percy raised his eyebrows, still looking highly amused.

" _You_ blew up Mount St. Helens?!" she spluttered. "Do you know how much of a _headache_ …?"

"Whatever headache you had couldn't have possibly held a candle to mine when I woke up four days later, marooned on an island," Percy said dryly.

She looked like she was trying very hard not to grimace in sympathy.

"Is the other Praetor alright?" Percy asked curiously, staring at the teen. He looked to be in shock, whereas Octavian was simply mutinous.

Reyna elbowed the other Praetor in the ribs. He glared at her. "He's fine," Reyna concluded. The Praetor glared harder. Percy stifled a laugh.

* * *

 

"Prissy!"

Percy turned, irritating cape wadded up in his hand. "Hi, Clarisse. Praetor Reyna, meet Clarisse, daughter of Ares."

Reyna hesitated. "Mars?" she questioned Percy.

"Sort of," Percy agreed. "Mars is both warfare and strategy. Ares is just warfare. I've met both: I trained under one for a short while and beat the crap out of the other when I was eleven."

Clarisse shot Percy an annoyed look. "I just got your attention because Liam doesn't have the lungs."

"I'd like to hear more of your stories," Reyna muttered to Percy. To Clarisse, she grinned. "From a daughter of a war god to a daughter of a war god, I've heard quite a bit of your fighting prowess."

"I find myself frustrated," Clarisse said, catching on to Reyna's subtle question. "Spar?"

"I'm Praetor for a reason," Reyna warned playfully.

Clarisse let out a deep guffaw and clapped the much smaller girl on the back. "Let's put those Praetor skills to the test, eh?"

Percy turned to Liam. "I remember you vaguely, but beyond your first name, I've got no idea."

"Son of Demeter," Liam prompted. "I was in the Academy for four years. I was in the year above your sister."

Percy blinked, confused for a second. "Cousin," he corrected, realizing that Liam was referring to Thalia. "Thalia is my cousin. She's a daughter of Zeus, I'm a son of Poseidon. I think Annabeth mentioned you once, as well."

Liam rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, accidentally made a name for myself when I helped Clarisse to the Big House, despite her demands of 'who the hell are you?'"

The son of Poseidon snorted. "Right, I remember now. I still don't remember you from the Academy, I apologize for that. But man, you have balls to ignore that girl, her needing medical attention or not."

"They were being stupid, just standing around and staring when she was quite obviously hurt and disoriented," Liam defended. He hesitated. "Not to mention cranky as Severus Snape."

Percy snorted, and then fell into full-out laughter.


	10. Kronos

When they finally exited Olympus—'they' being all the demigod ambassadors—and the Half-Blooders and the Big Three cousins went to Camp Half-Blood, shock and alarm rippled through them as they heard The Yell.

The Yell was dubbed as such by demigods with capital letters, simply because quite often it was the last sound a demigod made. A mixture of a battle cry and a call for help, The Yell often spoke of a demigod's imminent demise. Sometimes, though, a demigod would live to tell the tale, but in the heat of the moment, they thought they were actually going to die. Thalia was the only one of the Big Three cousins to have uttered The Yell, and she still bore the scars of the encounter.

The Yell was never meant to be heard inside a safe haven, such as Camp Half-Blood.

Nico was the first to move, drawing his sword and running towards the noise. Immediately after, the rest drew their chosen weapons and charged after them. They made an impressive sight, full of armor and elaborate cloaks swishing around their ankles, looking battle-ready. If it had been any other time, Percy would have insisted on setting up a video camera to run the film in slow motion later.

By the time they got there, Percy's face was flushed and sweating—not because of the run in full armor, but because of the strain that he was going through, keeping his cousins' powers directed into everyone. His concentration almost faltered as he saw the damage to the forest—the shattered and burning trees, the rubble that used to be Zeus's Fist, the patches of yellowed grass from the various poisons flying through the air.

Kampé was there, a myth that any of them had only heard about, brutally destroying any demigod who stood in her way. Hypoborean giants he recognized from their travels to Canada. _Dracaenae_ , Lastrygonians, hellhounds that were not as fun-loving as Mrs. O'Leary. Enemy demigods, some kind of fire-breathing horses that were carnivores, and a bunch of half-humaniod and half-everything that you could think of demons. Last but definitely not least, Kronos was there, two brightly shining golden eyes staring out of Ethan Naukamura's face, fighting four demigods at the same time: Annabeth, Luke, Katie, and Marcus.

The group scattered to help. Liam stayed by Percy's side, as Percy's skills were lacking somewhat as he concentrated on keeping up the flowing power between his cousins. Kronos noticed this and made his way over. "Perseus Jackson," he said.

Percy resisted the urge to shudder. The Titan had practically tasted his name on his tongue, and all Percy could think of was ' _PEDOPHILE OVER HERE!_ '

The battle suddenly flipped as Kronos was distracted by a failing Percy. Thalia and Nico were battling Kampé with help from Chiron's and the Apollo campers' arrows. Hazel and Bianca were running interference with the whole of the Lastrygonian giants and a few _dracaenae_ as well. Jason was flying around, dive bombing unsuspecting monsters and picking them off one by one.

A storm was brewing overhead. The temperature had dropped ten degrees already. Strong breezes fanned the flames of the forest fire.

Liam, beside Percy, was positively white with fear.

"Why must you struggle so?" the Titan all but purred.

"Dude," Percy ground out, almost laughing with incredulity. "You could not be any creepier if you _tried_. Why must I struggle? Because I _do_ so enjoy winding you up."

Liam let out a strangled laugh. Kronos looked infuriated.

It began to rain. The water washed over Percy's skin and helped him concentrate.

Percy struck first, lightning-fast. He went straight for the killing blow: a slash across the throat. He fully expected his blow to be blocked, but he wasn't expecting _where_ the blocking came from. His blade simply glanced off of his skin like it was steel instead of flesh. He backed up, his green eyes wide with shock. "What the hell?" he spluttered.

"You like it?" Kronos said, satisfied.

Percy decided that no, he didn't like it, and decided that he fully intended to hack the guy into pieces like he had been five thousand years ago. He struck again, now aiming for Kronos's sword, and the fight truly started. A series of lightning-fast strikes and parries began, and Percy let his powers reign free.

He shuddered, energy coursing through him like he was being struck by Jason's lightning constantly. All of a sudden the concentration needed to keep the connections open was halved.

If anyone was watching, it would look like the sky was cracking open. Lightning and thunder crackled over the heavens, and it began to downpour, the forest fire almost being obliterated.

Percy flipped, using some of Thalia's power to boost his jump to clear Kronos's head. He twisted in mid-air to land facing the Titan and struck at his back, attempting to slice him in half diagonally, from the Titan's left armpit to his right hip.

Kronos whirled, actually starting to look disconcerted.

The battle was winding down, Kronos's army being decimated. Kampé was gone, only two scimitars and a mound of golden dust left of the formerly terrifying beast. The majority of the giants were gone. _Dracaenae_ still ran around everywhere, but the campers were slowly rounding them up. The fire breathing horses were all but useless since the start of the rain; they really didn't like water. Hellhounds were still terrorizing the campers, but Percy couldn't do much of anything about that while Kronos was still around.

It took all of a split second for Percy to get distracted, between the combat around them and concentrating on keeping up the flow of power between the cousins, and Kronos got through his defenses and literally ran him through.

Percy lifted his sword and rammed it into Kronos's eye—the same one that Ethan had lost. Kronos howled with pain.

The damage had been done, to both sides. As Percy's concentration faltered and finally failed at the onslaught of pain he was receiving from his abdomen, he squeezed his eyes shut as everyone's power snapped back into themselves like a rubber band. He opened his eyes hesitantly, hoping that the unpleasant sensation would be all it was, but then saw Thalia clutch her chest and stagger backwards and fall into another demigod.

Percy was blasted into unconsciousness from the backlash.

* * *

 

Thalia stirred. Her back ached. Electric blue eyes blinked open and squinted from the light.

"Hello?"

No one answered. Slowly, Thalia pulled back the covers and swung her legs over the side. The world spun, and her stomach growled.

She swallowed. Her throat was dry.

Painfully, Thalia stood, and stayed standing, swaying slightly. She felt weak. Shaky. What in Hades happened?

As she questioned herself, the memories came back, and she staggered backwards and had to sit down from the almost literal blow that the memories had given her. Out of all the memories that had come flooding back—the War Council (wow, there's a shocker), the battle (oh my GODS!), the fact that it was Nico who took charge (little eleven-year-old Mythomagic-obsessed Nico)—it was Percy and Kronos that stuck in her mind. The grisly, almost ironic image where time had seemed to stop.

Two swords.

One embedded hilt-deep into Percy's abdomen.

One sticking out through Kronos's eye.

But while Kronos was howling in pain, Percy simply looked grimly satisfied, despite the fact that Percy clearly had the worse injury.

Blue eyes snapped open.

 _Percy_.

Where is he is he okay is he alive how bad was the injury will there be lasting effects _oh my gods_ where the hell am I has Camp Half-Blood been taken over where's my spear where's my bow I'm hungry where's the food where's _Percy?_

_What if he's dead?_

She put a hand to her stomach as that thought circled through her mind. She felt like she could throw up at just the _thought_. Not only would the Prophecy be passed to Jason ( _oh my gods, Jason, is he okay?_ ), but she would lose a family member. Someone that was practically her brother. Nico would be devastated. _She_ would be devastated…

Thalia shakily climbed out of bed and located her spear after a moment of hunting, and put the pendant that would become her bow around her neck and ventured out of the room.

After a moment, she realized that she was in the Big House and started trying doors, hoping that one would lead her to the way out. She tried one door and opened it, to see half a dozen people swarming around a bed, a heart monitor flat lining.

Her own heart stopped when she saw the person's greyish-blue face.

_Percy._

* * *

 

Percy's dreams had always been unusual. He didn't quite know why he thought that because he unconscious from being stabbed—and therefore very close to the death—that this would be different. He got disturbing flashes of Kronos, holed up somewhere and swearing blue holes into Percy Jackson. He got the impression of blood and gold, and one time he felt like he was very close to waking up in the real world, and he couldn't help but laugh at the vision of Ethan with a gold eye storming around the place, one hand pressed to his eye, his followers cowering in his wake, and swearing in so many languages that Percy didn't know all of them and lost count.

"It was an _attack_ ," Kronos hissed threateningly. Percy had to admit to a grudging admiration. It's pretty hard to intimidate demigods, and yet Kronos was doing it with ease, while he was obviously wounded and drained and definitely looking worse for wear. "I was leading the forces, along with some of the most feared things that Tartarus can churn out, and we were _still_ routed, with minimal losses on the opposite side!"

Percy was now half-expecting Ethan to draw a wand on the cowering demigod and use the Cruciatus on him, despite the fact that they were demigods and not wizards. Kronos was _seething_. Percy couldn't help but grin.

Abruptly, Percy was dragged away, and instead saw one of his cousins: Nico. Nico seemed to be in the same shape that Percy was in: unconscious and close to death, based on the way they chatted incoherently. Years later, he and Nico would still burst into insane giggling every time the word 'together' was used in an even faintly humorous way. The conversation generally went in circles, but the gist of it was crazy crap akin to: "Hey, Nikky. I think I'm dead." "I think I'm dead, too." "That's okay, cousin! We can be dead together!"

No one said that cousins had to be sane…

Just as abruptly, Percy was yanked away again, instead watching Katie Gardener and Annabeth converse. "Your boyfriend, Annabeth…"

"Yeah."

"…is one crazy, ballsy bastard."

"Sometimes literally, even."

Percy got the pleasure of watching Katie sacrifice a mouthful of lemonade to the god of spewing as she laughed.

Black shut down over the scene like it was a movie and the curtain had fallen.

Whispers drifted in his ears, lonely phrases disjointed from the rest of the universe, together, gibberish; apart, nonsense. He got impressions of lightning and shadow. He heard rumblings of the earth, and reminded him unpleasantly of Hazel's death. He felt more than heard or saw lives being displaced through his connection with Nico, which was somehow still active.

And then even those faded, and he fell into dreamless sleep.

* * *

 

He woke to a bunch of people snoozing around him, something beeping in his ear. Annabeth's head rested on his leg, her arm underneath it, her other hand clutching his. Thalia was snoring, her elbow propped up on his bed's railing, her head propped on her fisted hand. She looked absolutely exhausted, if the purple shadows under her eyes were of any indication. Jason and Bianca were asleep on the couch, Jason having firmly wrapped Bianca next to him, one arm wrapped around her stomach as they both slept, her back flush against his chest. Calypso was passed out next to them, sitting at a desk, her head resting on her forearms, which were propped on the desk. Liam and Katie were dozing lightly, guarding the door but leaning against the wall. Katie's arms were crossed under her breasts, her head leaning against the wall, perfectly balanced and relaxed as she dozed a bit. Liam had his back against a bookcase, his head cocked against the wall, his left hand poised at his sword's hilt.

Percy couldn't help but feel a little bit amazed at the sheer amount of people that managed to fit into the room. That, and he wasn't dead. How did that happen? Where was Nico? Where was he? Was he in the Big House? It looked like the Big House. How long had he been out? What time was it? How bad was the damage to the Camp? Had there been another attack to the Roman Camp—what was it called, Camp Jupiter? Had the gods been alerted to the attack?

He attempted to ease himself up and gasped a little at the sharp pain in his abdomen. The beeping spiked, and he looked over and realized he was hooked up to a heart monitor. Okay, no moving.

Liam's eyes snapped open at the suddenly rapid beeping, and then a wide grin spread across his face as he saw Percy awake. Percy put a finger to his lips. The son of Demeter nodded, and wrote down a note (thankfully in Ancient Greek), and passed it to him:

_It's been eight days since the battle. You're in the Big House. The battle was practically over with when you and Kronos decided to kill each other and then you all but exploded. The battle site was levelled, and only a couple of the monsters, demigods, and Kronos escaped. Eleven people on our side died, and there was probably twenty or thirty major injuries, including your own._

Percy nodded, and pantomimed a pen. Liam passed him one.

_What time is it? Were the Romans attacked like we were? How bad was my injury? Where's Nico?_

Liam read the short note. Percy passed him the pen. He scribbled a note:

_It's about two thirty in the morning. As far as I know, the Romans weren't attacked, but even if they were, they would probably view it as standard procedure since they live so close Mount Othrys. And your injury…well, you almost died. It's only thanks to the combined efforts of Chiron, Luke, Annabeth, and Calypso that you did live. You won't be mobile for a long while, and it will scar pretty badly. And whatever you guys did that caused that backlash didn't help at all. Almost nothing magical helped, and your heart stopped twice after that. And, well, no one knows where Nico is. He disappeared after the battle, no one has seen him since._

Percy blanched. Liam handed him the pen.

_What the Hades?! He's eleven! There aren't that many places for the guy to hide!_

_We think that he shadow-travelled somewhere and then got stuck there,_ Liam wrote, a wry look on his face.

Percy grimaced and nodded. _That makes sense. He disappeared for eight hours once because he got stuck in China._

Liam nodded, looking like he was trying not to laugh. _Get some more sleep, Percy. If Nico shows up, I'll wake you up._

_Wake me up when they start to stir, please._

Liam nodded again.

Percy laid back and closed his eyes, his breathing slightly shaky now that he knew how close to death he had came. He wouldn't mind when the god came, but he wasn't quite ready yet. And where was Nico?

Before he knew it, someone was prodding his cheek. "Hey. Percy. Wake up. Thalia's awake and staring at me as if I've gone nuts."

"Oh, shut up, Liam," Percy groaned.

"Hey, you asked me to!" Liam said defensively.

"You're almost as annoying as Nico sometimes," Percy grumbled into his pillow.

Thalia laughed aloud, reaching over and hugging him carefully. "Gods, I'm so glad you're awake."

"I'm just glad I'm not dead, like I fully expected to be," Percy said honestly. "Are you okay? I saw you fall after I lost my concentration."

"I was the closest to you," Thalia said. "I received the brunt of the impact, right after you. I just woke up two days ago."

Annabeth stirred at the voices, blonde curls springing everywhere as she sat up. "Any change?" she asked Liam sleepily.

The son of Demeter snorted. "For someone who is absolutely brilliant, you are entirely unobservant."

Her eyes snapped to Percy's amused and quite awake green eyes. "Hiya, Wise Girl."

"Oooh," she ground out. "You are such a—a—"

"Seaweed Brain?" Percy helpfully finished.

"And then you had to go and get yourself—"

"Stabbed. Run through. Speared. Gored. Knifed," Percy supplied.

"And you almost _died_ , you stupid, idiotic, moronic son of Poseidon!"

"I personally prefer Seaweed Brain," Percy muttered. "Works just as well without having to list all the adjectives."

"Where would I have been then?"

"Without a boyfriend, I suppose."

"I was the one trying to heal you, Seaweed Brain!" she screamed. "If you had died under my care, I would have never have forgiven myself!"

"But I didn't."

"That's not the _point!_ "

"Yes, I am well aware of that eensy little fact."

"Be _serious_ ," she pleaded. "You scared me, Seaweed Brain. Please don't do that again." She reached out a trembling hand to run her fingers through his hair. "Good gods, please don't do that again."

Percy leaned into the touch. "Alright. I'll do my best, Wise Girl."

She leaned over and planted a kiss on his forehead. "Thank you."

Bianca let out a little "Aww." Thalia laughed a little, finally relaxing into a chair.

For a room full of ADHD and paranoid demigods, the room was dead silent.

"We're alive," Katie finally sighed, sinking onto the couch, nearly sitting on Jason. She rubbed her face, suddenly looked very weary.

"I'll keep watch, Kates," Thalia said immediately. "I've gotten enough sleep. You go to bed. And take your armor off before you do!" she called after the daughter of Demeter.

Katie was already out the door, waving her hand in the air in thanks.

* * *

 

Kronos lounged in his throne, reading a mortal's history book, with a notepad and pen next to him. His followers watched him warily as he occasionally got up from the chair and paced, still reading the book.

 _One would be sufficient, for the moment,_ Kronos decided. _Just one, who disappeared into the depths of history._

And eventually, he found who he was looking for.

It was five in the morning, and yet the demigods and monsters were still wide awake, still glancing warily at Kronos, so they all jumped to their feet (or hooves, or paws, or whatever the Hades they had) when Kronos dismissively waved his hand and there was a crack like thunder and a man appeared.

He was short, but clean shaven. He had an air of trustworthiness, though if one was observant, they would notice nervous ticks that would make themselves nervous. He was dressed in nice, though outdated, clothing.

"Where am I?"

Kronos studied the man, who did not look at all surprised at the monsters and demigods surrounding him, but instead palmed two Celestial Bronze curved knives. "A reasonable question," he finally decided. "I am Kronos, King of the Titans. You are in Manhattan, New York, seventy years ahead of your time."

The man regarded him, deadpan. "Thanks."

"I have brought you here because I would appreciate your skills. I am currently waging war on the gods and demigods, and I need to get rid of a particularly pesky mortal in a particularly…gruesome way."

Grey eyes studied him with frank curiosity. "Very well."

"Come, Cleveland Torso Murderer. Allow me to update you on current events."

"Who will be my target?"

"A mortal woman. She gave birth to a pain in my neck. Her name is Sally Jackson."

* * *

 

Nico woke slowly. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that he stank, although it took him a while to register that his nose wanted to leap off his face.

Slowly, groaning softly, Nico sat up and conducted his usual checklist. _Fingers? One…four…six, seven…ten. Yep, all here. Toes? Uh-huh. Arms? Intact. Legs? Left one is sore, right one is fine. Back aches like a SOB. Heh heh, sob. Sob, sob, sob. Eh, no. Anyway. I have a crick in my neck, my mouth tastes like dead lizards have been having wild parties in there, and my forehead hurts like I seriously banged it against something. Can't remember what, though…_

His clothes stank of dried sweat. He cast his mind back and got vague impressions of Percy and cereal ( _whaaa???_ ) before arriving at the grisly image that he was last fully conscious for: Percy and Kronos, swords sunken into the other's soft flesh.

He reeled backwards, falling off the bed in his haste to expel that image from his mind. He discovered that though his mind was in shock, his body's reflexes were still up to par against a hard floor.

Thankfully.

His behind would not appreciate him if he fell on it.

He swayed, gathering all of the stupid _what-if_ s and shunting them to the side. He looked around, saw all the black obsidian, and guessed that he was in Hades's palace for whatever reason.

Because, for all that Hades wasn't like Zeus, the three brothers still shared a ridiculous sense of drama and doom. It was actually rather funny, once you got used to it. Aunt Hestia liked doing a running commentary to her nieces and nephews whenever she and one of the brothers was in their presence. She was hilarious. As in, red-faced, bitten-lip-until-it-bled, shoulder-shaking, _don't-you-dare-let-our-fathers-know-that-their-sister-is-maligning-them-because-this-is-too-funny_ , hilarious. Percy had even passed out once, because he couldn't open his mouth without bursting into guffaws and opening his mouth was the only way he could breathe.

Distracted eyes landed on a door, which, testing the handle, led to a bathroom. Nico quickly grabbed some clothes from the wardrobe and took a shower, thankful to be out of his stinky clothes.

After the shower, though his left leg was screaming at him, he felt much better. He had a rather ugly yellow-purple-teal bruise on his forehead and a gash on his left leg that apparently resisted normal attempts of healing for whatever reason. When he limped out of the bathroom, he winced as his ears were assaulted with a cacophony of noise: sirens, the chattering of the animated skulls, and his father roaring instructions to, "FIND NICO, DAMNIT!"

Nico blinked, wide-eyed, even as he cringed as the siren seemed to try to re-define the meaning of "high-pitched".

He leaned against the doorway. Of course, his mouth ran away with him, barking out, "STAND DOWN!"

Nico blamed Jason. Or Thalia. Thals did that a couple of times too. Sometimes that was the only way to get Percy's attention when he was mad at something. Or someone.

Of course, barking out a rather impressive order with a rather impressive set of lungs wasn't quite as impressive in a squeaky little eleven-and-a-half year old voice.

Even so, it still got everyone's attention. His father paused in his shouting, the chattering of the skulls froze. The siren seemed to want to make up for the lost volume, though, and got louder and even _more_ high-pitched.

"Oh, _shut up_ , you stupid siren!" Nico yelled, irritated. As is wont with young, irritated demigods, of course the siren exploded into hellfire and disintegrated into ash almost instantly.

Nico looked at the pile of ash. "Uh…oops?"

Hades burst out laughing. "Nico, are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah. I think. For the most part."

Gods, Nico felt awkward. First time talking to his father and he's stammering like an idiot.

"Your cousins are worried."

Nico frowned, the impressions of Percy (and cereal) coming back to him. "How is Percy?"

Hades shrugged. "Not dead, thanks to you. That was the most entertainment I've had down here since Triton got lost and ended up in here through some baffling way."

He squeezed his eyes shut. The headache that he'd mostly dispelled from the shower was back in full force, between the (incinerated) siren and his confusion. "What did I do?"

His father waved a hand dismissively. "Nothing big. Just broke the door of my waiting room. Charon was pi—eh, really angry."

"I've heard worse, you know. Heck, _Bianca_ says worse than that." Dark eyebrows lifted, and Nico snickered a little at the surprise there. "Of course, Hazel probably wouldn't say anything worse than _gosh darn_ , even if the situation warranted an f-bomb."

"Nico…"

"I know, I know, I'm not supposed to tease my sisters," Nico said, waving him off in an eerily similar manner that Hades had done when discussing Nico's pulverizing of the waiting room door.

"Honey, have you—oh, yes you have," Persephone interrupted as her husband opened his mouth to protest Nico's words. "Hello, Nico. Nice to see you conscious and coherent."

Nico's eyebrows rose, but wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. From the horror stories that Percy and Thalia shared, he wasn't expecting Persephone to even act towards him in a kindly manner, much less seem genuinely glad to see him well. "Hello, Lady. I'm…rather glad to be conscious and coherent, I guess."

She laughed a little. "You are off again, I suppose. No doubt to tell your cousins that you have a step-mother that doesn't act like the Wicked Witch of the West."

Nico's mouth twisted into a wry smile.

Persephone leaned towards him, as if sharing a secret. "I have learned that my husband's illegal offspring punish him in a far worse manner than I ever could. They, without fail, seem to inherit my husband's penchant for trouble."

"Persephone!" Hades groaned.

Nico was hiding a smile behind his hand, dark eyes dancing with laughter, and he leaned closer to the goddess. "Based on the fact that both Bianca and I were born in the spring months, I daresay that father got a bit lonely… And you do look remarkably like my mother."

Persephone flushed to the roots of her hair, and so did Hades. Nico grinned at the embarrassment that he had caused, and dropped like a stone through the dancing shadows of Hades's palace.

Good news: he had managed to shadow-travel to Percy, who was, as expected, bedridden.

Bad news: Annabeth was trying to separate Percy's tonsils from the rest of his throat with her tongue.

And so, as he inflicting embarrassment upon his father and step-mother, his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend unwittingly inflicted embarrassment upon him.

Nico squeaked like a mouse, his pale face flooded with heat, and travelled away again.

* * *

"Where _is_ he?" Bianca hissed, wracking her mind for another hiding place of Nico's, her face scrunched up in concentration, her fingers wrapped around a cold glass of water.

She, Thalia, Jason, and Hazel were sitting around Sally's table while the woman herself was in the living room, evidently typing out her book. Hazel had her head on the table, seemingly nothing but a mass of cinnamon curls. Jason was doodling pictures in the moisture on his Sprite. Thalia was scribbling out a list of…something. Paul Blofis was watching quietly from the corner, still silently fascinated by the world his stepson lived and breathed.

The silence was broken as Hazel suddenly straightened like she'd been poked with a cattle prod. "Kronos is making for Camp Half-Blood again," she reported. Her face contorted. "Along with another army."

Thalia buried her head in her hands, a streak of ink going from her forehead back into her hair as she ran her fingers through the loose spikes. "How much time do we have left?"

Hazel looked like she was counting. "Two days…or six hours, depending on how many turns he does."

Jason swore, and Hazel colored.

"He's not angry at you," Thalia hastened to reassure the girl. "We're frustrated at the fact that Kronos is the Lord of Titans and therefore immortal, and the fact that Nico is still MIA despite Percy's dreaming, as well as our center being quite effectively out of commission."

Hazel looked like she wanted to pat Thalia's back but didn't quite dare. "This army is smaller than the first," she offered weakly.

Thalia sighed, running her hands through her hair again. "That's something, at least."

Jason's skin sparked, but he never stopped doodling in the water.

"Don't you spark at me, you know it's true!" Thalia snapped.

Hazel mouthed the first five words to herself in disbelief while Jason stammered out an indecipherable defense.

"You," Bianca finally snapped out, sounding like a graduate from a military academy that was growing quite frustrated and jabbing a finger at Jason, "stop jabbering. No one knows what you're saying and you sound like a bluebird. You," a pointed finger at Hazel, "look, I understand that you're shy, used to being shunned, supposed to be dead, and are cursed. Despite that rather impressive résumé, you are a demigod. Furthermore, you are a daughter of Pluto, and that makes you my sister. Based on me and Nico, we tend to specialize, and yours is the earth, despite the unfavorable relationship that you have with it." Jason snorted at the understatement. "You have a gift. I expect a more detailed report in an hour. If that means that you have to ignore these two birdbrains, then please do so." Thalia gave Hazel a wry smile. Bianca turned to the two aforementioned birdbrains. "And you two are going to go to Camp Half-Blood, explain to Chiron the situation, and help Percy and the camp counselors draw up a battle plan that can be set up within the time Hazel gave you. I am going to be calling in some contacts to help me search for Nico. Everyone has a sack of drachmas, I expect you to use them. Got it?"

She was answered with three rather meek nods.

Bianca stood, rinsing out her cup and putting it away. "Good," the thirteen-year-old growled as the cup clinked against others.

She marched out of the room primly and left the three to pick their jaws up off the floor.

* * *

 

An hour later, the three demigods reported to Bianca, who was in Nico's room reading a book with her sleepy brother's head in her lap. Thalia and Jason were the first to report in, and gawked at a half-conscious Nico.

"How did you—" Thalia started, astonished.

"I found him in Italy," Bianca said. "Mum's old place, actually. At least, the area the house was before it was blasted to smithereens."

"Italy—"

"Nico has a contact there, and everywhere else he ends up frequently," Bianca explained. "China, Russia, the Bazaruto Archipelago, the southern tip of Chile, and in a nest of bird-eating spiders." She paused. "Don't have a contact in the last one, though, but he tries to stay away from there generally."

"Bird-eating—"

"Spiders," Bianca nodded. "About yay long," she said, gesturing with her hands to indicate about a foot and a half.

Jason swallowed. Thalia paled a bit.

"Anyway," Bianca said, steering them back on topic. "How's Percy?"

"Bedridden," Jason said, shrugging. "Still cracking lame jokes, though, so he can't be too bad."

Thalia smacked him. "Percy's fine."

"Is he suffering from a lost or hurt voice?" Bianca asked seriously.

"No. Why?"

"When I found him, Nico was raving about Percy, tonsil surgery, tongues, and spring. I don't quite understand the spring part, but I can pretty much figure out that he traveled in on Annabeth and Percy making out."

Jason covered his mouth, laughter gleaming in his eyes, and Thalia bit her lip.

"Just asking," Bianca sad innocently.

Jason laughed aloud. "We did work out a plan that can be and is currently being employed within five hours. The usual Athena/Hephaestus cabins' traps, a Hermes scout, a minimum of three of Apollo's archers there at all times. Normally the last would be larger, but the Apollo cabin is already working overtime healing up the wounded."

"Demeter? Dionysus? Aphrodite?"

"Demeter and Dionysus grew some seriously painful plants over Zeus's Fist, which does not look like a fist from any direction anymore," Thalia provided. "Aphrodite rigged some kind of perfume bombs to go off. Apparently monsters hate the smell of Givenchy. When I asked if that would just infuriate them, one of them shrugged and said, 'I dunno what it'll do to other monsters, but I was wearing it when a hellhound came after me once. It got too close and started staggering around like a drunk.'"

Bianca nodded her head in acquiescence. "Fair enough."

"That's what I said," Thalia laughed.

"Uh…Bianca di Angelo?"

"Hazel?" Bianca, Thalia, and Jason asked in unison.

"Hi! Hang on a second."

The IM tilted dangerously, until it looked like Bianca was looked down at Hazel while just looking straight.

"What in Hades?" Thalia said, spotting the oddly-tilted IM. "Where are you?"

"Oh, I'm right underneath one of the entrances into the Labyrinth," Hazel said cheerfully. "I think I'm in San Fran, but I don't know for sure."

Bianca sighed. "I leave you alone for an hour. An _hour_."

Hazel smiled up sheepishly. "Well, you wanted me to get a more detailed report…"

"I didn't mean _go there!_ "

"Well, guess what," Hazel said stubbornly. "Anyway. It took me half an hour to find an entrance with enough sunlight to do this anyway, and it took fifteen minutes to get to Kronos's army, so it's not like I was in any major danger."

" _Riiiiiight_ ," Jason said sarcastically.

"Anyway," Hazel said, glaring up at Jason, "A couple of demigods, a couple of Hyperboreans. Kronos, of course." She looked away from the IM for a moment, down the corridor. "Mostly hellhounds and _dracaenae._ Two bear-men, don't know what they're called. Some eight-foot tall giants with sharp teeth. Jeez, wait until you _see_ those teeth. And the Minotaur." She looked away from the IM again. "That's about it."

"Are you…are you practically _on top of them_?" Bianca whispered.

"What? No! I told you, I think I'm in San Fran. But yeah, they'll take about two days. They took a couple too many turns."

"Where are they now?" Thalia demanded.

"Well, it's pretty funny, actually," Hazel laughed. "They keep stopping for short periods of time. Last I checked, they were in Washington—"

"D.C. or State?" Thalia demanded.

"Eh," Hazel looked hesitant. "State. But they're hilarious, because they keep sending scouts up to the surface and scratching their heads. They don't seem to get that the Labyrinth doesn't follow a linear path. And B?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll be at the Met in two minutes or so if you would come pick me up?"

"Frisco to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in two minutes," Jason muttered. "Some would kill for that kind of travel time."

"Anyway," Hazel said nervously, looking back down the corner. "I have to run."

Hazel swiped her hand through the image and left, and just before the IM totally faded, an explosion sounded out, causing all four of them to jump. After a moment to make sure that everything was intact, Nico went back to sleep, and Bianca turned back to Thalia and Jason. "I'll IM you two after I pick up Hazel," she said, and waved her hand through the image.

* * *

 

Two minutes, for an ADHD demigod, was plenty of time for a demigod's mind to wander. It reminded Bianca of the joke: Don't let your mind wander. It's too little to be out on its own.

Had it really been less than a year? Seven months and her life and been turned upside down and was still rolling and jiggling around like her life was a die and the person who held her life in their hand was fixing to roll. It made her wonder if they would ever throw, and what the impact would be like, and if the die would ever roll to a stop. Would someone pick her life up again and roll it around some more, before tossing it again?

She shook her head violently. She had spent _way_ too much time at the Lotus Casino, she now knew for certain.

Her cousins had almost literally fell into her life, and abruptly introduced to demigod society. She wasn't even sure if 'society' was the right word. Civilization? Way of life? Existence? Bianca nodded to herself: that was the word. Existence. Every day was a battle for existence, and their 'society' showed that. The quick efficiency of setting up for battle was nothing new. Some demigods tired of it after a while, some lived for it. Some just lived their normal life in between battles. A battle with a couple of _dracaenae_ was just as much of an irritating inconvenience as the heavy New York traffic to those people. To others, they were bored until the next battle.

Bianca marveled at those people. Did they not realize what they were missing? Friendship, family? Socialization, the comrade feeling? They just lived for the rush of battle.

And they were the ones with the shortest lives. Bianca thought that they were the saddest. Why were they like that? Were they afraid to get close to others because their first friendships and families were ripped away from them? Were the just…insubstantial? Did they have self-esteem issues and needed to be a hero to someone to help themselves?

Bianca shook herself out of those particular musings, redirecting her thinking to something a little less morbid and sad. _You are thirteen years old, Bianca,_ she told herself. _You are not supposed to be thinking of things like that._

Another voice piped up with, _Most thirteen year olds aren't demigods with their lives being rolled around like dice, either._

Bianca smacked her forehead, earning herself some strange looks from the other museum goers.

Her train of thoughts wandered, thinking about the people that had just given her strange looks. A thirteen-year-old girl standing around in normal clothes. Would the Mist cover her up just because she was a demigod doing something normal, but strange? Or would it only cover her if she did something abnormal, like wield a glowing bronze sword? If she burst into weapon-fighting 1-A, but with something normal, like a steel knife or a gun, would she still be covered with the Mist?

As for the Mist, what exactly did it do? Did it change people perceptions or just alter their sight to see what they wanted to see or what they expected? If people wanted to see the monsters, would the Mist change what they saw anyway?

That didn't make any sense. Teenagers were desperate to believe in anything but reality these days. If there was an 'alternate' reality, they would almost certainly throw everything they had behind the demigods. It also didn't explain how some could see through the Mist. It was most prevalent in children and teens, but you had a rare couple of adults. Even Sally admitted that she couldn't see through the Mist as clearly as she could when she was a kid.

Perhaps it had something to do with growing up. Adults were much more likely to write something off as a freak accident than children. Maybe because they had other adults pressuring them to believe in the safe 'reality' that they lived in? People didn't like change, Bianca knew. A rare few didn't care or even embraced it.

Oh. That made sense. The children were more likely to be accepting of strange things. As they grew older and had 'reality' forced on them, they stopped believing. People like artists, whatever they may be, author or painter, still believed in those strange things, partly because it gave them joy to believe in mythical creatures, partly so that they could pour their heart and soul into describing the creature they want to paint a picture of—literally and figuratively. Which explained Sally Jackson, author.

Bianca's head ached, and she was infinitely grateful to Hazel for showing up right then. The thirteen-year-old—Bianca realized with a shock that Hazel was actually older than her, and Hazel looked and acted so much younger than Bianca even though she had a lot more difficulties than Bianca had ever had, and Bianca had to admire the girl for retaining her innocence when Bianca couldn't—stumbled out of a closet.

She was panting, with dust in her cinnamon hair, and she stumbled out of the closet, turned around, and slammed it shut. She leaned against the door, laughing and wheezing.

"Are you okay?" Bianca asked hurriedly as she ran over.

"Oh, I'm fine," she laughed. "I had a couple of monsters on my tail. Shutting an entrance or exit to the Labyrinth means that even if you open the same door, you're going to be going somewhere else. Instead of ending up in the Met, the monsters that just yanked open the door are going to be in Mississippi."

Bianca burst out laughing. "C'mon, Hazel. Let's get you back to the apartment."

* * *

 

"You are crazy," Thalia said flatly.

"Yeah?" Hazel said, distracted, looking in one of the cupboards.

"Yeah," Thalia said. "Absolutely crazy. Nutters. Bonkers. Off your rocker."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Jason was laughing, and Bianca wasn't that far behind him.

"Are you alright?" Thalia finally asked, regarding the girl with a sharp eye.

"Of course," Hazel said. "Dusty, and I have a bruise on the side of my knee, but nothing that a shower and a couple of hours won't fix."

Thalia sighed as she sank into one of the chairs at the table. "Absolutely _crazy_."

"Well? What do you expect? I don't think a single one of us cousins are entirely sane."

"Sanity? What is this strange object that you speak of?" Jason asked seriously. He held the face for a second, and then broke into a wide grin.

"Exactly," Hazel agreed, finally deciding on chicken-flavored ramen. They were all startled when she placed the plastic-wrapped package on the counter, took out a butter knife, and proceeded to whack the package into submission. When she decided that she had enough, she opened it up, fished the powder out, sprinkled it over the crunched-up noodles, and ate from the bag, crunching sounds coming from her mouth. She swallowed, and noticed the looks she was getting.

"What? I'm hungry," she protested at the four wide-eyed stares. "And this is easy to make and available."

Thalia shook her head. "Nothing. I said nothing."

Hazel looked at her skeptically, but continued. "Anyway. You guys have a minimum of two days until Kronos shows up."

"Minimum?"

"Well, he could be in there forever, since maps don't work very well."

Jason sighed. "Hazel…"

"Hang on a second," Hazel said. She propped her head up on her hands and looked thoughtful. "Okay. You have a combination lock, right? It only opens for the right combination, right?"

"Yeah."

"The Labyrinth is one massive combination lock. Only it has different sections and entrances, so you need different combinations to be able to 'open' the 'lock'. If you don't have the right combination, it doesn't matter what you do, you can't get in, short of explosives or bolt cutters. Only the Labyrinth is protected from explosives and bolt cutters, so you either have the right combination or you don't. You might accidentally come across a combination, but it's unlikely that it's the combination that you want."

"Oh."

"I know a lot of combinations, but the only one who knows all of them is Daedalus, and perhaps Hephaestus—he's down there quite often. And me, I cheated a bit. I used my powers to figure out the majority of them. If I use them enough, I can memorize them."

"But Daedalus is dead. I thought we established that ages ago," Thalia said, looking at Jason, who was nodding in agreement.

Hazel huffed. "I am a daughter of Pluto and an escaped soul. Do you _really_ think I can't spot a fellow cheater of Thantos?"

The hairs on the back of Bianca's neck stood up, and she revised her opinion of Hazel. Innocent she might be, but she knew her power and she knew it well. She knew how she could stretch it to fit it as the key to a lock. If she wanted something, she could get it.

"Jeez," Nico whispered, sitting down hard. "And I thought Sisyphus was bad."

"A Sissy Puss?" Jason asked, clueless. "How is a Sissy Puss bad?"

"Sisyphus," Nico corrected. "He's in the Fields of Punishment for evading Thantos and living another thirty years past his death."

Thalia grimaced. "Hazel, why _did_ you escape?"

"There's a spirit that sometimes comes to the Aphosdel Fields," Hazel said, scowling. "Tall blonde lady. She's still living, but something else forces her out every once in a while. When she comes, she gives a prophecy to the dead. As far as I could tell, the other spirits could never understand her because she didn't speak the chittering language of the rest of the spirits because she was still alive. Or perhaps the spirits are so far beyond the outside world that they couldn't register her. I don't know. I do know that I was conscious, and that she spotted me about a month before I escaped."

Hazel blew out her breath, making her dusty cinnamon hair flutter around her face. "She was spouting off a lot of things all in one breath, so I only caught bits and pieces. Daughter of ghosts, dead in life, live in death, channel of the mists, seven to answer the call. A whole bunch of things, but it was _foes bear arms to the Doors of Death_ that caught my attention."

Nico sucked in a startled breath. Hazel nodded at him. "I tried going to Hades or Pluto, whichever one that he was at the moment. I tried going to Thantos. I walked until my insubstantial feet hurt, and I never got a foot closer to the edge or the palace. I looted someone's pockets for change, paper, and a pen and tried to send a message to Hermes to take to my father using an old altar and coals from the Fields of Punishment."

"Whoo," Nico said, looking amazed. "You have some serious creativity."

Hazel laughed, and then sobered. "Nothing worked. I finally gave up and bribed Sisyphus to tell me all the ways out."

"You got into the Fields of Punishment?"

"That's where my mother was supposed to go," Hazel explained. "And I was supposed to go to Elysium. We both ended up in Aphosdel. I guess they don't guard against spirits going _into_ the Fields of Punishment because what sane—or insane, I suppose—spirit wants to go there?"

"True enough," Nico said. "What did you bribe Sisyphus with?"

"His ability to breathe, first," Hazel said, smirking. "When he pointed out that he couldn't tell me anything if he couldn't breathe, I bribed him with his eyeballs."

Bianca turned green, and revised her opinion of Hazel again.

"What?" Thalia asked.

"Hazel, that's not bribing. That's threatening," Jason corrected.

"Oh, that's bribing," Hazel corrected Jason, smirk growing. "It's threatening for live people because you can't just shove your eyeball back in and have it work correctly. Bribing dead people is so much easier, because you can rip out their eyeballs and bribe them with the eyes if they tell you how to get out."

Bianca was actually a kind of puke green. Hazel noticed, and changed the subject. "Anyway. I escaped through the Labyrinth and went to Alaska—"

"Why did you go to Alaska?" Jason interrupted.

"Alaska was where I died," Hazel said dryly. "So I went back to get my body."

Thalia coughed. Hazel actually looked very amused at how uncomfortable she was making them.

"As soon as I could move, I was back in the Labyrinth."

"Move?"

"You try having a body that's been dead for seventy years but preserved by oil," Hazel said. "The muscles atrophy rather quickly, and I'm not even counting rigor mortis."

Bianca turned green again.

"Okay, no more talk of dead bodies and bribing people with eyeballs," Hazel decided.

"Wait, before we shut off that conversation, if your body had been decayed, would you have just been a walking skeleton?" Jason asked, curious.

Bianca smacked him.

Hazel wiggled her fingers at Jason. "Magic. Actually, I'm not sure if it would have worked for anyone not a child of Hades or Pluto, because my power was drained for weeks on end. When I would start to replenish it, my body would automatically take it to help it restore itself. I was absolutely powerless for almost three months, and only had a smidgen of power for another six. Five months later, you guys found me in the Labyrinth."

Thalia whistled. "Nine months to correct seventy years' worth of being dead? That's pretty cool."

"Well, B doesn't think so, so let's move on," Hazel said, glancing at the rapidly greening daughter of Hades.

"That's why you're here? Because of the Doors of Death?" Nico said.

"What are the Doors of Death?" Jason asked.

"The Doors of Death is another way out of the realm of the dead," Nico explained. "It's at the bottom of Tartarus. It's how the monsters get out. If 'foes bear arms' to them, then we'd have monsters that would never die, or come back ridiculously soon."

Thalia paled, and so did Jason when he looked at Hazel and saw how grim her face was.

"Right," Jason said. "But nothing's going on right now, right? Because we have enough things to deal with without having to worry about immortal monsters as well."

Hazel shook her head. "Why do you think that I stayed in the Labyrinth? It's the highest concentration of monsters in the world, even Europe and North Africa. If 'foes' managed to capture Thantos and chain the Doors down, I would be able to tell almost to the half-hour, to the minute in some places in the Labyrinth. No, nothing's happened yet."

The other four glanced at each other. "Yet?"

Hazel shrugged. "There was a prophecy about it. Sometime, somewhere, someone will pry the Doors open, and they will let loose a wave of monsters that would hunt demigods into extinction."

"Would?"

"Unless someone's there to stop them and wrench the Doors back," she said, shrugging. "And even if my body dies before then, I know how to escape."

"History repeats itself," Jason murmured. "Chiron told me awhile back that there was a demigod who blasted Kronos back into smithereens in 1900. It looks like history is going to repeat itself faster and faster, because the gods chopped their father up once, and then their grandmother rose again to attempt to wrest power back with the help of her giants. But that was a thousand years apart. 1900, this demigod sacrificed herself to shatter Kronos back into a million pieces. 1942," he said, nodding to Hazel, "another demigod sacrificed herself to stall Gaea and her eldest son. Now we're here. Percy turns fifteen in two months, and a year after that, sixteen. Sometime between then, Kronos will rise, or make a serious attempt. Sometime after that…"

"Before the Battle at Zeus's Fist, I was in the Underworld, looking for some information on Kronos," Nico continued. "I overheard my father and one of the gods that he works with. Apparently Athena smacked Zeus across the face with a live fish with the information that there will be a minimum of two wars within the next decade— _if they were lucky_. Three wars within the next three years if they weren't."

"There you have it," Jason said, nodding at Nico.

"I thought I told you to not go off on your own," Thalia scowled.

"Thals," Jason said softly. "We're going into war. We're demigods, most normal rules go out the window. With the war tacked on, the rest of the normal rules and some of the demigod rules get booted."

Thalia sighed in frustration. "Right. Okay."

Jason pulled his sister closer to him in a one-armed hug. Hazel munched on her crunched up ramen.

"Into the Second Titan War we go," Bianca said sourly. " _Yay_."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***IMPORTANT: How do you report someone on Wattpad for plagiarism? I am quietly furious because this story was posted on Wattpad by someone else and they've taken full credit for it, and they're asking for awards for it. It's pretty easy to find, but I'll give a link if someone else knows how to do it [here](https://www.wattpad.com/321456205-all-together-cousins-%E2%9C%93-thalia-and-jason-grace).


	11. Praetor Reyna

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A solution to a stab wound comes from the strangest of places...and a Trojan Sea Monster makes an appearance. Along with a lot of explosives. :)

The day after, a rainbow fizzled into existence in front of Jason just after breakfast.

“ _Reyna?_ ” he exclaimed.

He and the Praetor had become semi-friendly in the days after the Battle of Zeus's Fist, when Thalia was still unconscious, Nico was still missing, and it had still been unclear if Percy would make it. Jason, with the two senior members out cold and Hazel brand-new, had essentially fallen headfirst into leadership. The first thing he had done was send a letter to her through Hermes, asking if her Camp was all right. Three more letters had been exchanged, as well as a package of unicorn horn shavings from Reyna to Jason for Percy's stab wound, and in the last, Jason had told her how to go through Iris and create an IM. Jason hadn't heard from her in the two days since everyone had woken up and been found, and frankly, he had forgotten about her with the havoc surrounding him.

On the other side of the rainbow, she looked just as surprised. Then Jason caught sight of Nico, on the very edges of the image. What Nico was doing there, Jason didn't know, and he suppressed the urge to be like his sister and demand what he was doing there and to come home immediately.

“Jason, _why_ do the Greeks have this and the Romans have nothing similar?” the praetor exclaimed, scrutinizing the connection. “This is…”

“Hey, you people have giant war eagles and an elephant,” Jason laughed. “I think the Greeks get to have some perks as well.”

Reyna shook herself a bit. “Anyway. We have a problem. And we need some help.”

Jason instantly turned wary. “‘Problem’ like dislike of the Greeks, or ‘problem’ as in some giant monster?”

She grimaced. “The latter, unfortunately. We have the Trojan Sea Monster practically camping out in our backyard.”

“Reyna, do you remember that I am _Jason,_ as in, _son of Jupiter_? I'm not Percy.”

“Uh, yeah, I know that. I also know that considering the monster’s last defeater, it likes relations of the water even less than it likes Zeus’s offspring. And I know that because I have an infirmary full of demigods and powerful legacies with connections to anything and everything water.”

Jason ran a hand through his short hair. “And Nico? What are you doing?”

Reyna answered sheepishly. “Nico was the one that I foolishly disregarded when he said that it was a really bad idea. Then, when I went ahead with it anyway, he got everyone back alive.”

Jason ran a hand over his face. “Nico? Let me get a look at you.”

Reluctantly, the ten-year-old stepped into direct line of sight. There weren't any visible injuries on him, but his clothes were slashed and soaked with blood, and Jason figured that most of it wasn't his, except for maybe a bit on his arm and leg where distinctive claw marks tore open his jacket and jeans. His face was pale and drawn, and dark shadows bruised under his eyes.

“You look like death warmed up,” Jason said dryly. Reyna coughed suspiciously, and Nico’s tired face broke into a reluctant smile. “Be warned, I'm just going to say attaboy and call for backup next time, but if Thalia or Percy get wind of it, they're going to go ballistic. When did you go over there in the first place?”

“I already knew that,” he said, voice gravelly with exhaustion. "And four hours ago."

“So, going in line with my own advice, I'm bringing your sisters with me. Hazel to get us quickest through the Labyrinth, and B to help me beat the thing. And Hazel is probably going to sit on you to make sure that you don't go anywhere.”

“So no Thals or Percy.”

“Nope. No worrywarts or lectures.” Jason turned back to Reyna. “Is there a place that we can bunk for about six to eight hours or so? I want to see the size of the thing and whether or not we need to call in reinforcements before we attack, and I don't want to move Nico too much yet.”

Reyna snorted. “The legion wouldn't be happy with not one, but _three_ Underworld kids coming and staying for a while, so I'll clear you for New Rome. You'll have to leave your weapons at the border or in the armory--”

“Or in the Underworld,” Nico muttered.

“Or in the Underworld,” Reyna agreed. “But you four can bunk there while you're checking out the place.”

“Thanks. Give me an hour to round up the sisters and distract Thalia long enough that she doesn't know that we're gone, and we'll be there in about an hour and a half, tops.”

Reyna sagged with relief. “Thanks, Jason.”

“I would say, ‘not a problem’, but it quite clearly is a problem if you're coming to us cousins.”

Reyna chuckled, and swiped through the image.

* * *

 

_Distract Thalia, distract Thalia, distract Thalia...how in Hades do I do that?_

Jason rocketed past the borders of Camp Half-Blood, down into the valley, and towards the Big House. He made an abrupt skid to a stop in mid-air, and changed directions to the cabins.

_Hermes cabin, of course!_

“Stolls!” he hollered into the cabin.

Then he just about died laughing as the entire cabin leapt to their feet.

After a moment, they all relaxed, watching Jason lean against the doorframe for support and laugh himself silly.

“Grace,” one of the Stolls drawled. “You are _not_ amazing.”

“Okay,” Jason said, recovering. “That's okay. I'd rather be not amazing than lunch meat in Thalia’s sandwich.”

The other Stoll cracked up. The first one demanded (Jason thought it was Connor), “What did you do?”

“Not what I _did,_ but what I'm _going to do_. Me, Hazel, and Bianca are going to disappear for the next twelve hours, tops, and we don't really want a lecture for possibly doing something foolish.”

“And you want us to distract her while you're gone,” Travis said.

He nodded.

“How serious is this?” Connor asked.

“It put a cabin-full of part-Percys and Nico flat on their backs,” Jason said bluntly.

“Uh…” Travis muttered. “Is that a good idea, going after this thing?”

“Probably not,” Jason admitted. “That's why we're staying for hopefully only eight hours: four to scout and possibly get reinforcements, and hopefully not four to kill the thing.”

Connor sighed. “Well, you aren't being stupid, so yes, we'll distract her. And the people interacting with Percy, if necessary.”

“When we come back, there won't be so much a hair out of place, and we won't breathe a word to anyone that you helped us,” Jason promised. “How much do you need?”

The two brothers grinned.

* * *

 

The next forty-five minutes was a whirlwind track-down/visit/shopping spree/coerce into cooperation trip for Jason. He had to track down Thalia, Bianca, and Hazel, which was harder than he originally thought it would be, since Thalia and Bianca were out shopping and Hazel was helping Sally in the kitchen and debating with Paul the best ways to teach a dyslexic kid all the rules of English. Jason then had to separate the two girls from their respective companions, and it was actually harder to get Bianca away from Thalia than Hazel away from Percy’s parents.

Of course, since all of their stuff was at the apartment and they couldn’t kick up a fuss with their initial disappearance, he had to wait until they were all at home. Lunch was summarily made and devoured. Jason managed to snag the two together at the apartment and give them a more detailed run-down of what had happened, to which both demigoddesses agreed that taking Percy with them was impossible and taking Thalia was probably asking for a lecture—at least on Nico's part, and the poor kid had been through enough.

During those scant five minutes, Jason let the Stolls know that Thalia was on her way back to Camp Half-Blood, accompanied by himself so _please_ don’t let him become collateral damage.

They laughed at him.

Of course Sally and Paul knew that something was up, and Hazel simply said, “We’re keeping Nico company ‘cause he did something very stupid and ridiculously noble, and now we need to finish the job.” To which Sally laughed, told them to be careful, and to let her know when it was over.

Hazel got them to San Fran in record time through the Labyrinth (which uncomfortably reminded Jason that their quest was still unfinished, and they needed to do that soon). The three of them hailed a taxi and made their way to the Bay Area, and letting the very confused taxi driver drop them off at a seemingly random overpass.

The two demigods guarding the door nodded to the three of them as they stepped through the maintenance tunnel.

Reyna met them on the other side of the Little Tiber, the river that almost surrounded New Rome, and grasped Jason's forearms in greeting. "It's good to see you again, though I wish it weren't under such circumstances. How is the other Camp?"

Jason gripped her forearms in return. "No buildings were harmed—well, a landmine in front of the Ares cabin exploded, but that was their own fault—but a good portion of the forest was burned, flattened, shattered, or generally destroyed. The Demeter and Dionysus cabins—Ceres and Bacchus to you—are helping the dryads regrow their trees, but between the fires and the thunderstorm that Percy cooked up, it's a mess. Most of the campers are healed—there are only two others besides Percy that are still in the infirmary, but they'll be getting out today."

"How long until Percy gets out?" Reyna asked.

Jason shook his head. "We have no idea. The Apollo cabin has never seen a blade like the one that Kronos stabbed Percy with, and they're scratching their heads on how he's still alive. The unicorn horn shavings helped for a little bit, but it was back to being inflamed and smoking less than half an hour later."

" _Smoking?_ " Reyna choked.

Jason smiled grimly. "It's up to Percy, now."

Reyna shook her head. "I'll get you some more shavings and send it off. The least that I could do for you, after agreeing to take on the monster and leaving your cousin and the other camp during dangerous times."

"Tell me about it," Jason grumbled. "Kronos marches through the Labyrinth and he'll arrive at Camp Half-Blood early tomorrow."

Bianca smiled dryly. "Also, Percy is being sat on by Annabeth—he isn't going anywhere anytime soon. My _brother_ , however, seems to be in need of rescuing."

Reyna looked at Jason incredulously, before she snorted. "Your brother single-handedly rescued almost an entire cohort of demigods from that monster."

They crossed the Tiber and turned the corner around a building, to see Nico standing in the street, leaning against his sword. He'd gotten cleaned up since the Iris Message, but he still looked tired and drawn. Nico smiled a little. Bianca and Hazel rushed over to triple check his health and well-being, while Jason stayed with Reyna. The son of the sky didn't take his eyes off of his littlest cousin, though, and noted Nico's reactions to Bianca's and Hazel's pokes and prods.

"By all accounts, it was amazing. What kind of training regime do you guys _have?_ "

Jason laughed a little at Reyna's incredulous voice. "An intense one. Labeled do-or-die."

She snorted. "Fair enough."

"Actually, it's more instinctive. We tend to bleed over into each other a little—something to do with being cousins, I guess—so while demigods have above-average senses to the average human being and retain about half of them outside of battle, the six of us have above-average senses to the average _demigod_. Nico's amazingness—it's a word now, Bianca!—is made up of probably a third of our training, a half of his own instincts, and whatever's left is his powers helping him out."

Reyna's expression was stuck between _holy crap_ and _yeah, he's definitely thirteen_.

Bianca, her right arm slung around her brother's slumped shoulders, bumped Jason's shoulder gently with her left. "For future reference, as the math genius in this family, 'whatever's left' is a sixth." Her grin was a little impish.

"Genius?" Reyna asked, eyebrows raised.

"In comparison to the rest of the dorks," Bianca said fondly, "of _course_ I'm a genius."

"In math," Jason added.

"In math," Bianca agreed. "That's why I go to Percy for writing anything and to you for science."

"Hazel's really, really good with history," Nico added from where his face was buried in his sister's shoulder. "Even the more modern stuff."

"And you're the language prodigy," Hazel said dryly. "And that isn't even an understatement or limited to our little family."

They were getting some odd looks—a bunch of demigods practically ignoring the Praetor, who didn't actually mind, as well as not actually being legionaries. Those looks were compounded by the fact that someone evidently knew that two more Pluto children and a son of Jupiter were showing up, and that someone shared the information. As people put two and two together, the five of them were getting more dark glances than odd looks.

Bianca and Hazel were still fussing over Nico quietly, and Jason and Reyna were chatting about nothing as Nico relaxed a bit after what was, no doubt, a terrifying ordeal. Jason happened to catch one of the glares and straightened his spine, his half-grin from something snarky Reyna had said falling off the proverbial cliff. His face smoothed over, and a sharp, cold wind whipped through the area.

_He definitely learned his intimidation tactics from his sister,_ Reyna thought, mildly impressed.

"Let's take this somewhere else," he said lowly, sparking blue eyes glancing coldly at the offenders.

Nico was practically asleep on his feet, so Jason scooped him up bridal-style and didn't even flinch at the younger boy's yelp of surprise. Reyna led the way towards what he assumed was New Rome.

"Oi!"

Jason looked skeptically at the talking statue.

"No weapons beyond this point!" the talking statue continued.

"Ah," Reyna said, as if remembering something. "Jason, Bianca, Hazel, Nico, this is Terminus. He's the god of borders and helps us guard New Rome."

"Let me guess," Hazel said, amusement lacing her tone. "The 'no weapons' rule was inputted after Julius Caesar got poked a few times with some pointy object?"

"Relax, my dear, assassinations haven't happened in months!" Terminus said cheerfully. "Now, to keep up my record: I need any and all weapons on your person."

Jason was biting his lip as Bianca mouthed, _Months?!_ at him. He managed to swallow his laughter and not sound strangled when he said, "Praetor Reyna told us about the no-weapons rule. We left everything in the Underworld."

The guy behind them let out a strangled noise of disbelief.

Jason suppressed another grin.

"Well, except for me," Jason added. "There's a coin in my back pocket that wouldn't stay—that's really disturbing that you know which back pocket I keep my _gladius_ in, B, but okay."

Bianca flipped the coin between her fingers like an experienced card dealer or gambler. Her smirk actually kind of scared him.

"Julia!"

Jason had to wonder why a feminized version of Julius was hanging around the god of borders who was supposed to stop assassinations ( _months_ , and yes, he was still stuck on that), but he shook the errant thought from his head. The brown-haired girl with pigtails and teeth still growing in grinned brightly up at him, holding up a tray with a variety of other weapons.

He also kind of had to wonder who was the idiot who let a three-year-old—a surprisingly coordinated three-year-old, but still a three-year-old—be in charge of the weapons.

Regardless of the ponderings about a feminized, un-assassinated, three-year-old Julius, Bianca still crouched in front of the little girl. "Hi, Julia. My name's Bianca."

"Hi!" the girl chirped. "I'm three-and-a-half!"

The daughter of Hades grinned gently. "My friend over here has a magic weapon. It likes to sprout legs and run away."

Julia giggled at the imagery. "Term'nus said tat I was good at 'erding sheep!"

"That's right!" Bianca said, depositing the coin on the tray. "And you'll watch this one, right? Both eyes?" She grinned a little and bugged out her eyes. Julia giggled again and nodded almost violently. "Thanks, Julia."

The Italian rose and crossed the border, swiftly followed by Jason, still carrying a now-dead-to-the-world Nico. Hazel kept giving her half-brother worried glances. Reyna just looked amused with all of the hullabaloo surrounding the cousins.

"There's a cottage at the end of this street," Reyna said, turning left, off the main roadway. "It's small, and the legacy who owns it was demanding rent—she didn't care who paid it—so I rented it for the day."

"I do kind of have a question," Hazel said. When Reyna nodded, she continued: "This is such a small community. Denarii and drachmas are both granted to us by the gods. I can see how drachmas are used as an economy on the Greek side—if you can see through the Mist properly enough, you can get mythological stuff just about anywhere, from amazon.com to UPS to some Mom-and-Pop stores that might not be demigods themselves, but are the parents of demigods. The Greek gods are careful with how many drachmas they send out to any one demigod for a quest, and demigods give some of those drachmas back to the gods, buying their services, like Hermes and Iris, or Mercury and Acre. The Greek economy is stable. As far as I can tell, the Roman economy really isn't. The denarii could be worth ten dollars or five cents and it doesn't look like it would matter to you."

Reyna considered that for another thirty feet. "You know, I don't actually know. Medical is free, although some housing isn't. Training is free. Standard fare food is free, though some demigods opened up a couple coffee and sandwich shops. We have transportation to and from the city—that _certainly_ isn't free—"

"You have transportation _to_ New Rome? Why do demigods make the trek here alone and hunted by monsters, then?" Jason asked.

Reyna hesitated. "It's a very old tradition, and a very old way of training. We make the trek to prove that we can survive. It's almost a way of rooting out the weak—it sounds bad, I know—"

"It's a way to protect the heart," Bianca said simply.

The Praetor nodded. She visibly composed herself. "Anyway, have you ever heard the saying, 'all roads lead to Rome'?"

Bianca and Jason nodded. Hazel shrugged.

"I think that's how our economy stabilizes itself. Yeah, we have demigods all over North America with transportation, but our roads will get you there in half an hour. Guaranteed, or your money back. It's kind of like a bus fare. At the end of the main thoroughfare, you'll see this building that looks like a really impressive bank. You get into a cart with five others and the cart takes you away." She paused, looking faintly nauseous. "I've only ridden it once in my life, and I wish I hadn't. It was like Gringotts cart plus Knight Bus and shaken violently together."

Jason grinned at the reference to _Harry Potter_. Bianca frowned a little. "Knight Bus? I don't—"

"It's in the third book," Jason reassured her. She was only halfway through the second, and Jason was having a hard time not spoiling everything. "Imagine triple-decker bus going ninety miles an hour down Fifth Avenue and breaking probably every law of physics that mankind knows about, and probably some that mankind _doesn't_."

Hazel turned greener than Kermit the Frog. "That sounds worse than a boat."

"That sounds worse than Coney Island," Bianca said bleakly.

"I thought you lived in Italy?"

"My mother was an ambassador, Jason. I've been to New York, I've been to Washington DC, I've been to London, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and a dozen other cities that _aren't_ in Italy," Bianca said patiently.

"Yeah, well," Reyna said, amused. "Some people are adrenaline junkies. It's just like an extreme roller coaster, so—"

"Oh, _Hades_ no. I hate rollercoasters!" Bianca exclaimed.

"Ferris wheels are worse, but I'm not too fond of rollercoasters, either," Hazel admitted.

"Are you two done maligning amusement parks yet?" Jason demanded.

"You know, I almost turned around and just yelled 'no!' in your face," Hazel said. "Then I remembered that you had Nico."

All four looked at the ten-year-old. He was still pretty much passed out, despite how loud they were being.

"Speaking of," Reyna gently interjected. "Here we are."

Jason set Nico down on one of the two beds in the house, and Hazel pulled up a chair and ensconced herself in a translated Anne McCaffrey novel. She had been working her way up the years that she had missed—and most certainly had _not_ gotten to Harry Potter yet.

Reyna unrolled a map on the kitchen table. "I don't really see why we need this," she admitted. "The sea monster is in the Bay, and it's huge. There's no possible way that you can miss it."

"More dramatic," Jason offered. "Stab the paper with a fingernail and say, 'this is where the monster is', and then stab the paper again and say, 'this is where we are'. I would say stab it with a dagger, but that would a, ruin the table, and b, you don't have a dagger on you."

Bianca cracked up. "Oh, Jason. I'm not sure if I should tell you to shut up or don't ever change."

"Jupiter Almighty, am I glad I didn't get ADHD," Reyna said, bringing them back on course. "You could take our roads—"

"No."

"—or you could take the conventional ones, like most questers choose to do," Reyna continued as if she had never been interrupted. "We don't generally have more than fifty dollars on base at a time—"

"We brought money," Jason assured her.

"That works," Reyna said. "I would feel better if you did a scouting mission today and have me send a cohort to help you tomorrow, but you're on a timeline and I understand that."

Bianca and Jason exchanged looks. "Um, you know that quote from some really important general? The one about no plan surviving the first attack?" Jason asked delicately. Reyna nodded slowly. "Well, with us…the plan not only does not survive, it blows up in our faces rather spectacularly, nine times out of ten. So, likely, we'll get there and end up battling the monster three seconds after we actually manage to see it."

Reyna considered that. "What happens the last tenth of the time?"

"It just dies. No blowing up. It just dies," Bianca said flatly. "The only plans that make it in our group are the ones made up on the fly and even those only plan for the next twenty seconds or so. Usually mid-fight. So no, we don't bother planning past the first contact."

"We can guess what's going to happen, though," Jason pointed out.

"Yeah, we're going to scout the place, the monster will catch a whiff of us, and tear apart the city looking for us like a little girl with a dollhouse, looking for a specific doll," Bianca snapped.

"Whoa, don't bite my head off," Jason said, holding up his hands in the universal surrendering position.

"Sorry," she muttered. "But still, we both know what's going to happen. We get anywhere near it and we're labeled as food."

"I _know_ , B. We could get really close to it if we went on the subway, the place stinks in New York so I would assume that it stinks just as much in San Fran—"

"But we'd still have to come aboveground to see it, and then it would catch our scent and rip the city from the earth," Bianca pointed out.

"Not helpful," Jason growled.

"Don't bite my head off," she quoted dryly.

"Right, sorry," he said. He smoothed the map flat. Then he paused. "Reyna, which direction is the wind blowing in the Bay?"

She went over and checked on the dinosaur of a computer. "Off the ocean, to the east. Why?"

Jason looked at Bianca, who suddenly had a very calculating look in her eye. "How good are you with the Mist, B?"

* * *

 

Annabeth had her whole head stuck in a book when Thalia poked her head in to check on Percy. Lightning's daughter didn't even bother to try to see if she could understand what the blonde was reading—last time, it was advanced theoretical physics and Thalia spent probably half an hour trying to puzzle out what Compton's Law was, never mind everything else.

Admitting academic defeat to a daughter of Athena was kind of a no-brainer.

But even she knew that a smoking wound was bad. They tried the unicorn horn shavings—straight shavings, made into a paste, poured down Percy's throat as a potion-type-thing—until they ran out. Percy had seemed to be fairly okay when he first woke, but the more that wound smoked, the more wan and pale he seemed to be. He'd been restless when he first woke—tried to sit up, even, before his practically severed abdominal wall gave out on him—but now he could barely lift his head.

The shavings seemed to halt the leeching of…his life? His powers? His soul? Whatever it was, the shavings stopped it, but didn't reverse it. Water didn't even slow it down.

She gripped his slack hand once, and left.

The demigod in the hallway surprised her. Thalia furiously blinked away tears.

"Hi," he said softly, in deference to the sleeping demigod on the other side of the doorway. What surprised her was that he had to have been forty-something. He held out his hand to shake. "Dennis Mackley, legacy of Ceres. Praetor Reyna had me run this to you."

Ah, yeah, another cousin. Probably explained why she felt the same tenuous connection that she almost always had with Percy.

She didn't have that connection now. Her hands shook as she took the surprisingly heavy box.

Thalia swallowed and spoke carefully, making sure that her voice didn't shake. "Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus. What is it?"

"More unicorn shavings," he said. "Your brother talked to her about your cousin's wound and how the unicorn shavings stopped the smoking for a while. I'm also the last demigod to have heard of a similar wound. I volunteered for the mission."

Thalia's eyes sharpened. "Spill."

"My father was a son of Ceres; he was in the Fifth Cohort. About thirty years ago, a quest was sent to Alaska, to try to fulfill a prophecy. He and the Cohort in general failed, losing the eagle and their status in the legion, but most of them didn't make it back alive. My father was one of the ones that made it back, and frankly he was the sanest of the five that made it."

Thalia almost growled. "The wound, man."

"He almost didn't make it. He raved about a strange sword that was clearly gold but glinted silver, delirious with fever and a smoking wound that wouldn't close. New Rome was attacked shortly thereafter—I don't remember who, what, or why—but every man, woman, and child was called to defend the city. My father, lucid for a brief period of time, got off of what I thought would be his deathbed and went to fight with the others. He came back and almost passed out from blood loss, but it stopped smoking and he was able to be healed after it. I believe that it's a matter of mind over body."

"A kind of _you-WILL-work,-damnit_ ," Thalia murmured in understanding.

" _Raison d'etre,_ " he corrected.

"Reason to live," she translated loosely. She buried her face in her hands.

Now what? He had Annabeth, he had his family.

What more did he need to live?

* * *

 

They ended up trying to plan for another half an hour before Jason threw up his hands, left Reyna in charge of a practically-unconscious Nico, and the three of them made a quick pit stop in the Underworld, before taking a bus into the city. Jason sat in the middle, Hazel squished against the window, and Bianca half hanging off the seat, and spread the map over their laps.

"There's a subway at the edge of the city here," Bianca was saying, pointing to the subway entrance. "It goes almost to the edge of the Bay. Jason and I will engage the monster immediately, and Hazel will get closer and hide underground somewhere where she can still see where we are and what we're doing."

"If Hazel gets in trouble, I can't help her," Jason warned. "I can only carry one person besides myself, unless they're little. Like, Julia-sized little, B."

"If she needs help, you drop me. I can get myself to the ground safely. Can't promise what will happen after that, but I can get myself down," Bianca said. "Also, she's going to be downwind of the monster. It'll probably still be able to smell her if it's actually trying and not concentrated on us, but it will have to be looking for her—and know that she's there."

"Okay," Jason said, nodding. "New thing you've been working on?"

She nodded, dark hair bouncing.

"I will avoid Ferris wheels. And tentacles. Beyond that, I can't promise anything," Hazel said sheepishly. "I'm not sure how well I'll do at controlling the Mist."

"Confusing the monster, even by having its vision flickering or some such, is really all that needs to be done," Jason said. "Nothing elaborate, promise."

She gulped and nodded.

Jason did have to wonder how badly this plan was going to go off into left field.

* * *

 

They moved fast. The three came up on the stairs and Jason grabbed Bianca around the waist and shot into the air, heedless of the gawkers on the street below.

Hazel booked it for the nearest building.

"Reyna said it would be impossible to miss!" Bianca yelled over the rushing wind, sounding exasperated as they rocketed over the Bay with absolutely no monster in sight. "So where is it? Did it move on?!"

As if it had been waiting for summons, the Bay erupted underneath them. Jason swerved, almost falling out of the sky, yelling, "Holy Rhea, mother of Zeus Almighty!"

"I think I know where the monster is," Bianca said dryly as the gargantuan monster seemed to grow to the height of a thirty-story building.

"I could _really_ use some C-4 or dynamite right now," Jason muttered.

"You have lightning and I have hellfire, and Hazel has cursed jewels. What more do you want?" Bianca retorted.

"So we're going to fry 'im, along with every other fish in the sea," Jason said dryly. "No offense, but I don't think that's the greatest idea. I don't feel like destroying livelihoods."

"Well, you better give me something, because I don't have a lighter on me!" she shrieked.

"Be ready!" he warned.

"Go!" Bianca said.

He zapped the monster, and he could feel Bianca working on taking some of that energy and fueling her hellfire. He had to think about it for a moment, but after three-seconds' thought, he could feel the winds shifting to support Bianca too.

It was a little more draining than regular flight, but he had lots of reserves for the moment.

He carefully flew away from her—Jason didn't even think that she noticed, so concentrated was she on her tiny flame. It doubled, then doubled again, then tripled.

Jason wasn't really certain why a cohort of mini-Percy's had a hard time with the monster. It was huge and powerful, yeah, but it was slow and power doesn't mean much if it missed. _Do Romans not move?_ he wondered.

Because yeah, if Romans didn't move, he could see where the problem laid.

He eyed the monster, seeing if it had any weaknesses at first glance. It was shaped like an eel, with a broad, snake-like face and narrower, wriggling body made for swimming. Eels were fairly easy to kill—provided that you didn't get bit or shocked (in the case of an electric eel), and assuming you could hold onto the slippery fish long enough to kill it. However, this gargantuan 'eel' had armored layers, much like an armadillo's armor.

It was turning around to face them.

Very slowly.

Ridiculously slowly, really.

_Could I pry off one of the armor pieces with my gladius?_

He got in close to the ridiculously slowly turning monster and prodded at the armor, looking at it closely. There weren't really any chinks in said armor, not even on the underside, where one would expect said chink. He wedged his _gladius_ under one of the plates and pushed in, towards the monster.

It did absolutely nothing, and Jason felt really silly flying sideways into his sword and having it go nowhere.

"Jason! Get it to come towards me!" Bianca yelled.

He didn't have to look. She sounded strained, and he would bet his full comic-book collection that she was on fire.

Well, he kind of had to make sure that it completed its ridiculously slow turn. Then he would annoy it. _I wonder if that armor conducts electricity._

Fifteen seconds later, the monster completed its turn and came charging towards Jason.

In an instant, Jason realized that this thing was like a twisted version of Mario Kart: some of them had sucky acceleration but really good turning capabilities, some of them had blindingly fast acceleration but really sucky turning capabilities.

This fellow happened to be the latter.

"Holy—" Jason yelped, diving out of the way.

All of a sudden, he could see the Romans' problem.

No way to get past that armor, no way to outrun it fast enough to have that those sucky turns come to fruition, and no way to stand against the power of the momentum of the monster. It was a miracle that they came back alive and not in a matchbox.

_Bianca's never going to dodge it in time, even if she does manage to blow it up,_ Jason suddenly thought, panicked.

Hazel's voice suddenly came booming across the Bay: " **HEADS UP!** "

Something that looked suspiciously like a street lamp was hurtling towards the monster. It melted a little from the close shave of Bianca's blazing inferno around her, and Jason dove at the last second. He turned around, mid-air, to see the lamp plow into the face plate of the monster's armor like a battering ram, actually slowing it down significantly and armor plates clanking together and a few even breaking off. A second and a half later, Bianca dropped out of the sky and left her tightly contained mass of hellfire in the monster's path.

Jason dove for Bianca, slowed them down enough so that they wouldn't be pancaked upon impact, and let them splash into the cold water of the Bay.

A massive fireball lit the skies, visible even from underwater.

* * *

 

"I think it's dead," Hazel said later, finding her half-sister and cousin climbing out of the Bay onto one of the many piers.

"Gods, I hope so," Jason said. "By the way, what _was_ that thing?"

She looked sheepish. "I think that it was someone's heritance that they didn't want to be found. It was supposed to be just a streetlamp—and it worked and everything—but it was cast iron, probably built during the Gold Rush of 1848 and '49. The inside was filled with solid gold."

Bianca let out a low whistle. "So that monster got sunk by what was probably forty million dollars in gold hurtled at its head?"

Hazel nodded, curls bouncing, her cheeks dark.

"Well, that's new," Jason said, amused. "Let's get back to Camp Jupiter, yeah? We're getting some stares, and I need a shower."

"Seconded," Bianca added immediately.

* * *

 

Reyna would unashamedly admit that Nico di Angelo scared the crap out of her when he all of a sudden lurched upwards in bed like he'd been shot, breathing suddenly erratic and dark eyes crazed.

"Percy! Where's my sword?!" he demanded.

It took her a moment to register the question, and by then, he had asked her again. "Uh, you left it in the Underworld. You're in—"

He disappeared.

"—New Rome," she finished, exasperation in her voice. "Hazel is going to kill me for letting you out of my sight, you know." She got up and went outside. Reyna fished out a drachma and tossed it into the fountain there. "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Thalia Grace, Camp Half-Blood."

When the image resolved, Thalia was attempting to get Nico to calm down and speak English instead of Italian.

"Reyna!" Thalia said, surprised. "What's going on?"

"He was helping me with something and probably overused his powers," Reyna said, nodding to the dark-haired boy. "I made him get some sleep and he woke up less than a minute ago exclaiming something about Percy and swords."

Nico nodded. "The sword that Percy was stabbed with—it's called a Soul Sucker. It's a cross between immortal metals and mortal steel, forged together, and can kill mortals and immortals. It's what Kronos's scythe was made out of last time! A small cut is supposed to kill you within minutes if you're strong-willed, let alone a stab wound!"

Thalia's face turned as pale as freshly fallen snow, her smattering of freckles standing out as though she had taken a brown marker and drawn them there.

"Where did you get this information?" Reyna demanded.

Nico swallowed. "My father. Hades."

"Dennis said that his father had survived the stab wound," Thalia said. "And he wasn't Big Three."

"Was he Demeter?" Nico demanded.

Thalia's eyes widened. "You don't think— Reyna, on that mission in the 80s, how many children were there in the Fifth Cohort that were Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, or Ceres?"

"There were four other Ceres children, but—"

"That's it!" Thalia said, eyes lighting up. She looked at her littlest cousin, obviously intending to ask him to do something, before taking a closer look and turning to Reyna. "When or if you see my brother and our cousins, tell them to come to New York pronto."

Reyna nodded sharply. "Will do."

Thalia sliced through the IM.

* * *

 

It took a little longer to get back to Camp Jupiter.

For some reason, most buses were not enthused with the idea of two stinky and wet people boarding them. Go figure.

Also, both Jason and Bianca burst into laughter at random and occasionally inappropriate times when they thought about a monster biting the dust because of forty million dollars in gold. Because even Hazel had to admit that using that much gold to kill a monster was a) unusual, and b) overkill with her curse.

Jason finally pointed out that the massive explosion was probably partially Hazel and partially Bianca. Who knew what cursed gold and hellfire did together? Then he started laughing for a good thirty seconds at their chagrined faces, although Hazel had to giggle nervously a little afterwards.

"You're crazy," Bianca finally said, directed at Jason.

"What? Why me?" Jason protested.

"If you theorized that from a murky, muddy glimpse of an explosion, you _have_ to be crazy," Bianca said flatly.

"B, I deal with lightning, my sister, and Percy on a daily basis," he drawled. "I think it's fairly obvious that I am an _expert_ in observing and possibly aiding explosive devices."

She paused. Then she pointed at him and said, " _Point_."

Hazel downright _grinned_.

"I still say that you're crazy," Bianca said.

Jason was still arguing his point when they finally got back to the Roman camp, and was interrupted by Reyna.

"Thalia told me to tell you guys to come home A-SAP," she said briskly. Worry shone in her dark eyes.

They sobered from their playful joking around and arguing. "Where's Nico?"

Reyna nodded her head to the east, opposite of the setting sun. "He woke up, obviously from a demigod dream, with disturbing information. One second he was there, the next, he was gone."

Bianca and Hazel exchanged alarmed looks.

"I IMed Thalia," she continued. "Nico was there when I saw him last. I don't believe that Percy has gotten worse."

Jason breathed out with that last tidbit, immensely reassured. He heard Bianca swallow a sob of relief.

"We'll head over immediately," Bianca said.

"I left my book at the cottage," Hazel interjected.

Bianca nodded. "I'll go with you. I want to make sure Nico didn't forget something in his dream-induced shadow-travel."

Jason made to follow them, if for nothing else to intimidate the rest of the camp into behaving around the daughters of the god of the dead, but Reyna grabbed his arm. He looked at her.

"Camp Half-Blood has suffered major losses already," she said lowly, intensely into his ear. Their heads bowed together. "If not in fatalities, then in morale. Your keystone is gravely injured already—"

"How did you—" Jason gasped.

Reyna ignored him. "—and while I don't doubt your Camp's ability to drive this second wave off, I doubt their ability to do it without any further losses."

He swallowed his surprise. "You sound like you have a plan."

"I'm sending a Cohort to Camp Half-Blood," she said, tone hesitant. "They are…unorthodox. Amongst us, they are the losers and taunted. I'm hoping that they will do better at the Greeks' camp."

Jason grinned a little. "They do pretty well with shaping up losers."

"I hardly think that you count," she said dryly. "But, I need permission and an address to send them to." She hurriedly continued when he opened his mouth to object the point that he was leader enough to _give_ permission: "In my position, even amongst the Senate, getting permission from Chiron would be tantamount to declaring weakness. I don't want to put him in that position. Asking Thalia would get me laughed out of court—she's neither Roman nor an actual official of Camp Half-Blood."

"Neither am I!"

She poked his chest rather hard. "You're a Roman, dummy. In name, if not totally in spirit." She grinned to take the bite out of her words. "Also, unofficially, you showed yourself as an Ambassador at the War Council."

"Ambassador of _what?!_ " Jason squawked quietly. "I have enough titles, up to and including 'the guy who yanks Percy's head out of the gods-damned chimney'!"

Reyna pulled back and looked at him queerly, but she shook her head and continued: "Odd titles aside, I would assume you would be the ambassador of you cousins."

"Oh, yes. The Ambassador of The Cousins. That's perfectly ambiguous. Everyone will know where I hail from," Jason muttered.

"Jason, shut up," she snapped, exasperated.

"No!" he barked. "I mean yes, you have permission, but _no_ , I'm not going to shut up. What you're saying about me being an—an _Ambassador_ is patently _ridiculous_ —and oh my _gods_ where do I get these _words_?! But if you want titles, stick with the official ones, okay?! Because you people and your titles are even weirder than my people and _my_ titles!"

"And what title would you like me to use?" she asked sarcastically.

"Not-A-Politician,-Just-A-Hero," Jason said, equally sarcastic. "Oh, you want a _real_ title? How does Slayer of Medusa sound? Perhaps you want to hear about the Nemean Lion, though I had help with that one? _What do you want me to say?_ "

Reyna took a step back, paling. "Nothing. I think I'm fine."

He suddenly realized that the wind was whipping through the small street and that he had sparks coming off his arms. With effort, he turned around, away from Reyna, closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The wind died abruptly.

"Apologies," he said, the word clipped. "The address is Half-Blood Hill, Farm Road. Long Island, NY."

He still hadn't turned around yet. He didn't want to see her terrified face.

"—investigated," Hazel was saying as she came out of the cottage, with impeccable timing. "I think the other end of the Tunnel has an entrance."

"With the way this thing grows, I would not be at all surprised," Bianca said dryly. "Hi, crazy. But it's good that you found it—we don't have to go _all_ the way back into the city."

Almost against his will, a wry smile tugged at his lips. 'Hi, crazy,' indeed. "If I'm crazy and I identified the explosion, what does that make you, who _caused_ the explosion?"

"A pyromaniac," she replied promptly, laughing aloud at his slightly dumbfounded expression. "Come _on,_ Hazel. You move about as slow as molasses—"

"—in the dead of winter," Hazel finished wryly. "Well, I keep slowing down because you keep tripping and I have to catch you. Maybe _you_ should—"

"Last one to the Tunnel is a rotten egg!" Bianca shouted gleefully, taking off.

"Oh, no you don't!" Jason yelled, tearing after her.

Hazel sighed and ran after them. "Slow down? No, never," she muttered to herself. "No, let's _speed up_ , instead, and let's see if we can _actually_ fall on our face, rather than just _try_."

"Sarcasm!" Jason yelled. "One more service offered by Hazel Levesque!"

Hazel rolled her eyes.

* * *

 

After a dire threat of, "After this blows over, the six of us are going to have a talk about communication and location," from Thalia, she continued with explaining Dennis's story and Nico's visit with his father.

"You think that the Demeter cabin could form a bond like us?" Bianca asked, slightly skeptical.

"No, I don't think so," Thalia said emphatically. "I _know_ so. Dennis's father got up and fought with his Cohort and he was fine again. Something about the link overpowers the draining of the soul."

"Because there are five other tethers—are you saying that we're Percy's horcruxes?" Jason demanded.

Thalia facepalmed. "I regret letting you read those books," she sighed. "But essentially, yes."

"Wait, I don't understand," Bianca interrupted. "What are horcruxes, and how do they relate to the situation?"

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Horcruxes are a plot device in the last book of _Harry Potter_. They're essentially tethers to the soul, anchoring them to the living realm. Our powers are shared through our bond, but said powers are inextricably linked to our souls. You ever hear the saying, 'eyes are the windows to the soul'?"

Hazel and Jason locked eyes—gold on electric blue, before glancing at Bianca's black irises.

"Got it," Bianca said faintly. "Wait, did Voldemort—"

Jason clapped a hand over her mouth, hurriedly shushing her repeatedly. "No spoilers for Hazel!"

"You know I already watched the movies?" Hazel asked skeptically.

Jason groaned. "No! You're supposed to read the books and _then_ watch the movie! That's— _argh…_ "

"Don't mind him," Thalia told the girl. "He's a drama queen."

"Hey!"

"Is for horses, and we aren't storing any in the Poseidon cabin," Bianca said, grinning a little.

Thalia cracked up.

* * *

 

Thalia grasped her cousin's hand and restored the bond partially. That was all he probably needed, and he didn't need to be extending his powers anywhere, to be frank.

"W-what…Thalia?"

"Shh, Perce," she said, stroking his hair. "Just making myself feel better. Keeping you anchored here and all. Definitely not letting you go visit our Uncle just yet."

Ever so faintly, she could feel Nico link to Percy.

"Why?" he rasped. "No point. I couldn't link to you if 'Park's life was in danger."

Thalia swallowed. He was worse than she thought. "No sharing powers," she agreed softly. "Just keeping yours anchored here. Your powers and your soul are intertwined. One can't go without the other, and I sure as hell ain't letting go if Uncle comes a-calling."

"Neither am I," Nico said. "And I happen to have a little sway."

"Just a little," Percy said, closing his eyes. "If you had just a little, I'll love to see what kind of influence the Ghost King has."

Nico glanced at her, bewilderment in his eyes. "Percy? Who is Ghost King?"

Percy flapped a hand, smirking a little. "Don't worry about it. Most definitely not an enemy. You'll see. I'd love to be there in person when you find out."

He was making less and less sense, but—

"Percy, have you been dreaming of the future?" she asked.

"Yeah," he murmured, already sinking back into sleep. "It's boring here. It's all Kronos. By the Three, I am _tired_ of seeing that guy. Change the channel, please."

Nico muffled a snicker. Thalia grinned in spite of the situation.

"Oh," Percy said suddenly, his eyes popping open. He startled both of them, because they thought he'd passed out again. "Nico, that was awesome, but I have enough problems without you giving me a heart attack."

Then he really _did_ pass out.

Thalia side-eyed a suddenly nervous Nico, but ultimately shook her head. "Later. After him and his stab wound and the second wave."

Nico swallowed, and didn't bother to respond.

* * *

 

Jason jerked awake at stupid o'clock in the morning to the sound of drums and marching feet.

He bolted out of the chair that he'd been dozing in and out of the Big House, reluctantly letting go of Percy's powers when he approached going out of range. He was only slightly reassured by the fact that there were four others with a line to Percy.

"Gwen!" he yelled, grinning.

The sixteen-year-old centurion had become his favorite non-Cousins person when she had startled Bianca and Hazel and the girls had summoned hellfire and jewels, respectively, and hadn't batted an eye. Well, other than to 'ooooh' over the pretty jewels (staying a safe distance away) and quiz Bianca over the properties of hellfire, and whether or not she could convince Bianca to let her try to forge something with it.

Hazard of being a daughter of Vulcan, he supposed.

She eyed him. "Medusa? A scrawny shrimp like you?"

She was poking fun at him, and they both knew it. He scuffed the ground with one dusty toe, faking looking abashed. "Yeah, I was eight," he said nonchalantly. Several legionaries choked.

"So you were an even _scrawnier_ shrimp then," she mock-scoffed. "And you expect me to believe that?"

He shrugged, dropping the act. "Medusa at eight for me, Atlas at nine for Percy, and Hera at ten for Thalia. Chimera at ten for Nico (and by the gods, that scared me), Kampé at twelve for Bianca. Freaking _Gaea_ and Alcyoneus at thirteen for Hazel. Of course, she died, but she managed to take them with her for a while."

Gwen just stared at him. "You guys scare me."

"Obviously not," he said cheerfully, linking his arm with her heavily-armored one. "Otherwise you wouldn't have asked B if you could forge with hellfire."

"But seriously, Gaea?"

"Seriously. Gaea," Jason agreed. "Percy actually dreamed her death when we were still in the Labyrinth, and Thalia had a dream about _Percy_ having a dream…and really, Thalia woke up crying, so I don't know if I _want_ to know what Percy did upon waking."

"He threw up every meal he'd had in the last month," Annabeth said from behind him. "It would have been rather funny if it hadn't been so sad. Hi, Centurion."

"Gwen, daughter of Vulcan," the teen said, offering her hand.

"Annabeth, daughter of Athena," she replied. She looked a little flabbergasted. "I knew the Romans were sending reinforcements, but you must have emptied out half your Camp."

Gwen smiled a little sadly. "No, actually, this is just the Fifth Cohort. There are four others of the same size, and we make up the Twelfth Legion. We have a secondary place where the people aren't part of the legion, and we call it New Rome. It's why we have so many people to _have_ the Legion. Most of them aren't demigods, but legacies—children of demigods."

Annabeth looked a little wistful and dazed. "We never expected…I need to go reorganize the strategy with Malcolm."

"Sorry," Jason said to Gwen. "Most of us don't live long enough to have children. Everyone you see here is a demigod, a nymph, a god, or a centaur. There's only one of each of the last two, although Hestia drops by occasionally. And to give you an idea of numbers, there's about eighty demigods here."

Gwen blanched. "How the hell did you beat back the _first_ wave?"

Jason smiled grimly. "Intensive training, and Percy distracting Kronos."

Her face fell. "How is he?"

"Steadily getting worse, despite our best efforts," he said grimly. "The five of us are praying to whoever might listen that this battle will kick his gear into the right place."

He glanced at the slowly lightening sky. "I'll show you where they'll invade from. I don't know where Annabeth wants you right now, but I need to be with Percy when they invade."

"I'll take them. Go to Percy, lad."

Jason whirled. "Quintus! Man, you need bells."

"As you have repeatedly told me," the aged demigod agreed, mirth lighting his eyes. "Now, go on. No better protection from the monsters that infest those woods than Mrs. O'Leary."

"Oh yeah," Jason said. He turned to Gwen. "You see a hellhound, don't shoot. She's Quintus's."

Gwen glanced at the man. "I would like to hear _that_ story."

Jason grinned and bolted back to the Big House, swiftly reconnecting to Percy's core. He settled back into the chair that he'd vacated not ten minutes ago.

Never had he _wanted_ Camp Half-Blood to be invaded, but there were always firsts.

* * *

 

Hazel woke him a couple hours later. "It's time. Kronos is almost at the gate."

He swallowed and looked towards Percy, who was awake. "Hey," he said softly.

With a second look, Jason noticed that his eyes were unusually clear and lucid.

They hadn't been in the last couple of hours.

"Second wave?" Percy guessed.

Jason nodded.

Percy's head flopped back onto the pillow and he breathed as though steeling himself. "By the gods, this is going to hurt. Help me up."

"B, you're tallest. Get over here," Jason said quickly. He reached out two hands, forearms crossed. Percy grabbed them and hauled himself upright, grimacing steadily as he swung his legs carefully over the side of the bed. Jason stooped and looped an arm under Percy's armpit and carefully wrapped his hand over his chest and not his waist. Bianca copied him.

Jason almost staggered as Percy's core suddenly latched onto the line of power that he'd been keeping steady for the past twelve hours. Nico faltered in getting up out of his chair and had to sit down again.

"Sorry," Percy muttered past gritted teeth.

"No worries," Jason assured him.

He wasn't sure if Percy was aware that he was slowly draining them, but he really didn't care. They were standing, and that was more than Percy had been able or conscious enough to do in almost five days.

Percy took a step and Jason and Bianca stepped with him. After a moment, they found a rhythm they could settle into. Jason was so glad that the Big House was wheelchair-accessible. He didn't want to think how Percy would have to navigate stairs otherwise.

Slowly, they made their way across the practically deserted camp. Thalia, Nico, and Hazel hovered a little on the edges as they limped their way past the forge and the pegasus stables.

About three-quarters of the way there, there was a ridiculously loud _BOOM_ from directly in front of them.

"The Camp's been invaded," Hazel announced calmly.

He could feel Percy's power climbing along the line that he had provided, tendrils wrapping around like a vine and creeping towards his own core as the teen sped up.

"Don't hurt yourself," he warned.

"Blame it on Kronos," Percy said, exasperated by the fussing.

"Wouldn't you like the image of me marching up to Kronos and saying, 'Kronos, you bastard!' and slapping him across the face?" Jason asked.

"You'd break your hand," Percy retorted, but there was a definite grin on his face at the mental image.

They entered the woods, and Jason could feel Percy's power almost at his core. The older teen was wan, though his face was the picture of determination. He could feel the sea's son's apprehension and vague panic, and shooting waves of pain.

With a start, Jason realized that Percy was afraid that he would die in this battle. Not because he was afraid of dying, but because of who would be left behind to deal with the mess that was the upcoming war. Thalia would kill herself trying to stop it, Hazel had a mission of her own, Nico was struggling with his powers already, Bianca was no leader, and Jason had enough of a taste of leadership to know that while he could deal, he'd rather not.

"You are not going to die," Jason murmured to his cousin. "I'm pretty sure that Uncle will refuse to take you, anyway. He doesn't want a hardheaded sea brat down there to wreak havoc."

A small grin tugged at Percy's lips.

They made it to the clearing. Carnage was at every corner, Kronos wielding sword and power with a precision that would have scared even the most expert swordsman. Then, in an instant, the Titan Lord saw the six of them and the battle froze.

Literally, stopped. Gold eyes flared with irritation and wariness as he surveyed the six of them, five ready to battle and the sixth supported.

And Percy just smirked, just as his power reached Jason's core. His knees almost gave out on him, almost dropped his hold on Percy.

"Holy _shit_ ," Thalia breathed.

It had never been this intense before. It had been overwhelming, headache-inducing, adrenaline-releasing, and intimate in ways that left the physical world in the dust. Jason all of a sudden realized why Percy had multiple tendrils connecting to his core—there were a bazillion little tendrils every which way that connected each of them to each other, and just happened to pass through Percy's core, a massive spiderweb of power with Percy at the center.

And for the first time, Jason understood why Zeus wanted to split them up.

Because the connection shattered Kronos's time spell like a dropped vase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe that this has to be stated: you are welcome to do a podfic or a translation, or even posting on another site that I am not on... _as long as the credit goes to me_. Someone please tell me how to report someone on Wattpad for plagiarism. Or, if you feel like doing me a solid, this is the link: [Fake ATC](https://www.wattpad.com/321456205-all-together-cousins-%E2%9C%93-thalia-and-jason-grace) , and you can report the story there. I don't know how.


	12. Piper McLean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second battle for the labyrinth commences--this time with reinforcements--and the expected character shows up in an unexpected way.

Nico felt like he'd eaten a platter of Ms. Sally's still-warm chocolate-chip cookies and then drank six Cokes to make sure that he was well and truly ready to seriously annoy Bianca. Sugar overload didn't cover a tenth of the energy and adrenaline surging through his body. Was this was Roadrunner felt like?

Great. Now he wanted to go, " _meep meep,_ " and let Kronos eat his dust. Literally.

Jason had told him once that when Nico was on a sugar high, he was seriously scary. Apparently, he looked like a maniac. With a little bit of hellfire in his eyes.

Nico had responded to that with a question on whether hellfire would melt the sugar in him to caramel or if it would just fry it to ashes like it did everything else.

Thalia had muffled a laugh and then, very seriously, asked him to not wonder aloud anymore. His brain just went in too many directions for them to reasonably respond to without doing doubletakes or just doubling up into laughter and/or tears.

Nico personally thought that _Percy_ looked more like a maniac than him—at least for the moment. His cousin was pale and gaunt, the sleepless bruises under his eyes stark. His hair was dull, he was shirtless, and the bandages that covered his torso smoked at intermittent intervals, with crimson staining the white gauze. But despite the horrifying image his body made, his eyes were like a live wire—exposed, threatening, shining with power, and _alive_.

The smirk on bloodless lips completed the image of a maniac.

And, Nico couldn't help but think, the fact that he was flanked by a human lightning rod and a human torch and that they were _supporting_ him—well, if he was a stranger and didn't know how the Cousins worked, then he would have headed for a shadow as fast as his legs could pump.

Kronos wasn't just any stranger, but even he looked a little unnerved to see Percy standing enough to challenge him for a second time in less than a week, much less obliterating his time spell. And that had been Percy taking their power and using it to end the spell in an instant, not all of them cooperating together to slowly overpower it.

Nico absently noticed the eager shadows leaning away from their places. The dark was always drawn to him, eager to help and protect, if not necessarily obey. Bianca had it a little harder—fire wanted to do its own thing, was willing to destroy its maker, and _certainly_ didn't obey. Nico had watched his sister negotiate with fire once—and could suddenly see her as a kick-butt lawyer. Nico's problem was more learning how to move _with_ the shadows.

Perhaps that was why it was so difficult to use the other's chosen element. They were so vastly different in temperament that the chosen of one wanted nothing to do with the other.

The shadows drew on his power and lengthened, stretched, and whirled around him. He could feel ten tendrils connected to his core—five to draw from, and five for them to draw from him. Percy had made it so that he was the knot that held strings together, not the middle man in a rapid-fire bid for power.

A cold wind ripped through the clearing of Zeus's Fist.

"How's that refrigerator doing, Kronos?" Percy said, breaking the stunned silence after he obliterated the time spell with apparent ease. "Have you caught it yet?"

Thalia, Nico noted with a little bit of alarm, looked like she was about to run Percy through _herself_.

" _Demigods_ ," Kronos snarled in disgust.

Annabeth cracked a reluctant grin, and Nico positively _cackled_ with glee. Oh, gods, he loved his cousin's sense of humor. It got on everyone's nerves, and most people couldn't stab him without being extremely rude. It was beautiful.

The area lurched, as if someone had pressed fast-forward on an old VCR, and the battle exploded again. Kronos growled and sprang for Percy, and Nico swiftly side-stepped into his path, locking his Stygian Iron sword with Kronos's half celestial bronze, half mortal steel, one soul-sucking blade to another.

Nico was more than willing to look like a maniac now, and grinned and _whirled_ , a torrent of wind spinning him around and allowing him to move faster than a normal demigod. The hilt of his sword clunked against the back of Kronos's skull, and he dropped into a shadow as Kronos changed trajectory for him. Nico popped back up to Kronos's left, engaging immediately and abruptly disengaging less than five seconds later, only a few slashes and parries having been exchanged.

Thalia joined him, bouncing back and forth and flitting from one side to another like a dragonfly—evidently manipulating the winds in order to actually do her sudden changes of direction. Nico knew that he would have fallen over by now if he'd tried to do that on his own. Her 'bounces' were difficult to judge—sometimes they would take her a foot away from where she had been before, sometimes they would catapult her over Kronos's head with an elegant flip and often stuck the landing.

Every once in a while, Nico would feel himself slow, as if he were suddenly wading through mud or syrup. The titan looked gradually more and more frustrated as Percy evidently broke the still-forming time spells, until he was scowling fiercely at Nico and Thalia as they whipped around him a localized almost-tornado. The first few times he did it, Nico almost stumbled at the sudden surge of power that came flooding down Percy's tendril.

A second surge of power came from an unexpected corner, and Nico risked a glance to see where the mounting magic was coming from.

He then had to catch Thalia's elbow to steady her as they were all abruptly reminded that they had a half-Titan in their midst: Calypso sat in a shady corner of the now-ruined glade with a large, low drum in front of her, beating on it rhythmically and singing powerfully. Plants curled around her lovingly, and the Demeter cabin had rallied to that corner and were steadily trapping and strangling even the most fearsome and deadly monsters, working together in what seemed to be a choreographed dance that couldn't possibly be.

 _Is that what we look like?_ he wondered.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the three Hyperborean giants abruptly go up in smoke. Literally.

Nico forced himself to concentrate on the Titan Lord in front of him and ducked a wild swing of a sword that would probably have sent him careening into a tree and broken at least three ribs. He could see why Kronos had been a feared swordsman (swordstitan?), back when he hadn't been chopped up in a billion pieces. He was a demon on the field, keeping up with two demigods on fast-forward while not being able to slow them down, blocking one with his sword and parrying the other with his palm against the flat of his blade. Even though he was pretty much invincible—and Nico didn't want to think about _how_ at the moment, though he was pretty sure he knew—Kronos still ducked and dodged and twirled out of the way as if he'd still possessed weaknesses.

And Nico was half-sure that the Titan did. He just hadn't found them yet. Unfortunately.

Another quick survey of the battlefield told Nico that the battle would have been a rout even if the Romans _hadn't_ shown up, and since they had? It had been a veritable massacre.

It was evident that Kronos knew this, as well. With a roar and a sudden gesture, a gust of power blew them all off their feet and when Nico sprang into a crouch, sword at ready, the titan had disappeared.

Nico's eyes landed on his cousins and sister, who were still somehow upright. Percy shuddered violently and the tendrils unhooked from Nico's core, his own power snapping back to him. His cousin straightened a little, and Nico found himself watching Percy's midsection anxiously.

Of course, that was when the adrenaline crashed.

(No, of course he didn't pass out! There were too many important things going on. He was just…abruptly resting his eyes. That was it.)

* * *

Nico woke to rain. As someone who spent the better part of his life either in snow country or in a desert, rain was still a fascinating thing for him.

It was especially fascinating due to the fact that it was not supposed to be _able_ to rain at Camp Half-Blood, and that was where he had been last. So either Percy was up, moving around, and wreaking havoc with the weather, or Nico had been moved while he'd been asleep.

Considering that he slept like the dead, it was a pretty equal opportunity.

…gods, that had been such a bad pun.

But yes, he was in the Big House. He'd spent enough time here, sitting with Percy, to know where he was almost immediately. In fact, Nico was fairly certain that this had been Percy's bed.

He pushed back the thick covers and sneaked past the dozing guard/Jason. It was probably pretty late. Or ungodly early.

Which prompted the question of: what was Percy doing up?

Nico stopped walking after he got to the Big House's porch. Like he suspected, Percy was wreaking havoc with the weather. Nico wasn't entirely certain how he was doing it by himself—maybe Percy wasn't doing it at all, and the relatively gentle rain with a couple pieces of truly stunning thunder and lightning flashing about the sky was Poseidon's way of saying, 'thank the gods, you're all right'?

That actually kind of made sense, the way that Percy was standing there. His entire body was relaxed but alert, actually allowing himself to get wet. He looked a little bit like a half-drowned cat, with his usually-gravity-defying hair plastered to his head, but he looked way healthier than the last time Nico had seen him. He looked rested, his healthy tan back and blood in his lips and cheeks. Nico could see the wind of the gentle thunderstorm slowly circle around Percy, ruffling what little clothing that wasn't clinging to Percy's drenched body and creating a very odd effect in the rain. His eyes were closed, and if it hadn't been night and practically pouring, Nico would have said that Percy was basking in the sun.

Nico shed his still-dry jacket and left it on the closest chair—he _liked_ that jacket, and he would probably want something warm and dry to come back to once he got cold and wet from the rain.

To Nico's surprise, the rain was actually warm, which explained why Percy hadn't bothered ducking out of the rain or drying himself off out of sheer cold. Another unexpected thing was the wind curling around _him_ , as if saying 'thank you'.

Percy opened his eyes. "Hey, Nick."

"Hi. You look better."

"I feel better," Percy admitted. "But I expected you to sleep for a couple more hours. It _is_ three in the morning."

"Dead of the night, when all the creepy things are lurking about…like it or not, that's where I'm strongest," Nico said.

Percy snorted. "That explains _a lot_." He paused for a moment, obviously preparing to change the subject. "Your father was checking up on you earlier."

Nico directed an obvious glance up at the roiling clouds. "That does explain why Jason was _outside_ my room instead of next to my bed."

"Don't worry, Zeus already scared the crap out of Thalia when the wind almost knocked her over and then hurriedly set her to rights," Percy said, his voice sounding extremely amused. "She blamed Jason first, which was even funnier."

Nico cracked up, and the wind picked up, like Poseidon was eavesdropping and found it funny too.

Honestly, it would not have surprised Nico. Based on the glance that Percy directed skyward, Percy was thinking along the same lines as Nico.

"Poseidon's pretty obvious, but I do have to wonder how many others are eavesdropping," Percy said.

"Are you kidding? Hades is totally eavesdropping too," Nico said.

"I don't think Athena is," Percy said, beginning to tick off fingers. "If gods need sleep and she's at all smart, she'd be asleep. Unless she's reading a book. I think Annabeth is _still_ reading a book."

Nico snorted. "Artemis is probably busy hunting monsters like she said that she would be doing on the Winter Solstice. Although, she may be taking a break, but I doubt it."

Percy arched a questioning eyebrow.

"Well, it was pretty obvious to me that she loved hunting, even if—or perhaps especially if—it was something dangerous. If you have something that you love doing and you don't need to take breaks, why would you?"

"Because eventually I would lose inspiration," Percy said dryly. "I would be taking breaks to make sure that I wouldn't get bored doing the thing that I love."

Nico considered that. "I suppose," he finally said. "But with all the things stirring that are so old that they're practically new—"

"And that makes _so_ much sense."

"—I doubt that she would get bored during these few years. Now, if it was during a relatively peaceful time, and all she had to hunt was the occasional hellhound or _dracaena_ , I think she would get really bored, really fast."

"I'm still waiting for an explanation for the 'so old that they're practically new' piece, but overall, I think that I understand," Percy said.

"They're so old and they've been imprisoned for so long that they were imprisoned before or just after she was even born. To her, they're new. To us, they're unheard of," Nico pointed out. "We're legends to the mortal world. Some of the monsters that Artemis is hunting are probably legends to _us_."

"You know, you make some scary sense for an eleven-year-old," his cousin said dryly. "Aphrodite's probably listening in to see if we ever talk about the girls."

"But I don't have—"

"It doesn't matter, Nick, she's still going to be plotting," he said, rolling his eyes. "Hephaestus probably doesn't give a crap about the six of us, and Ares is either avidly watching this to see if we set each other off like Big Three kids of the past used to do, or celebrating for his kids' victory."

"Demeter is probably checking on her own kids," Nico continued, ticking gods off. "Zeus is probably watching, by virtue of Poseidon also watching, and also because that lightning is spectacular and not quite Poseidon's speed."

Percy cracked up.

"Hera is probably watching because her husband is watching, and looking extremely disapproving the entire time," Nico said. "Hestia is always watching, and I would go over and say hi to her at the cabins' campfire, but it's currently raining buckets."

For a moment, the rain seemed to hesitate, then continue pounding on them. Percy winced. "Please don't say anything that could be construed as a suggestion. I think Dad was considering changing all the raindrops to buckets."

"Oh, gods, how would we explain that to the Camp?" Nico asked, completely cracking up at the idea. "Both of us freshly concussed and buried under a mountain of buckets falling from the sky, and the cabins buried up to their symbols."

Percy sniggered.

Nico shook the thought. "Apollo…probably doesn't care. It isn't sunny enough for him."

"And Hermes is busy," Percy added. "He's always busy, so he's another probably not. Unless George and Martha are keeping him updated."

Nico, Percy, and Jason had met Hermes rather abruptly about two months before—something about a baby hydra going to the wrong kind of person but Hermes himself not being allowed to do anything about it. The three's brief encounter with the intertwined snakes had sustained jokes for weeks, and a lot of calling a very bewildered Hazel "George" whenever she did something wrong in the kitchen and happened to yell, "Rats!"

Perhaps a little juvenile, but it kept them entertained amongst the three of them. They were rather easy to entertain.

"Don't you mean that _Martha_ is keeping him updated?"

"Yeah, that, too."

They fell silent, the steady pounding of rain washing over them. Without looking, Nico reached over and slugged Percy in the chest as hard as he could.

"What the Hades was _that_ f—guh!"

Nico had wrapped his arms around his cousin and squeezed the stuffing out of him. "That was for scaring the crap out of me. This is for living to scare the crap out of me again later."

Percy laughed softly, warm and low, and hugged him back. "You could stand to show your affection a little less violently, but love you too, cuz."

Nico snorted into Percy's shoulder. "But less violently would take all the fun out of it."

He could _hear_ Percy roll his eyes.

* * *

Contrary to Percy's beliefs, Annabeth wasn't still reading a book. She was leaning heavily against the counter in the Big House's kitchen, elbows and forearms firmly planted and her stomach pressed against the counter of the island. With Thalia, Clarisse, and a third girl that the two boys didn't know the two boys came to the same conclusion separately— _a truly strange and rather intimidating quartet to walk into_.

"…Hazel. She can navigate the Labyrinth better than everyone else," Thalia was saying, both hands wrapped around her mug and leaning against the refrigerator. She was devoid of makeup for once, her eyes paling to a sky blue like her brother's. Her hair was more fluffy than spiked, and she was wearing a large t-shirt and skin-tight leggings, with knee-height fuzzy socks instead of shoes. For once, she looked utterly relaxed.

"The mission objectives have changed," Clarisse pointed out, swirling her mug of hot cocoa with one hand, the other wrapped around the stove's handle, of which she was propped against. Her hair was braided back, out of her face. Nico noted the fuzzy pajama pants with cat pictures, black combat boots, and red raincoat. She made for a rather hilarious picture. "We aren't trying to find Ariadne's String. We're trying to find a way to destroy the Labyrinth."

"We still need to find the String, if for nothing else, than to make sure it doesn't fall into Kronos's hands," Annabeth argued. Her hair was loose, flying all over the place and getting into her hot chocolate occasionally. Her mug almost got knocked over with her ensuing thump to the counter for emphasis. "Destroying the Labyrinth is impossible. You know that even better than I do."

"So change the mission objectives again," the third girl said reasonably, stirring her cocoa with a spoon and pacing back and forth. She was the only one fully dressed and armored, a purple tank top under a breastplate and heavy-duty jeans and tennis shoes. Strangely, she was wearing gauntlets, something that most campers hated with a passion and preferred to do without—what basically amounted to a bazillion straps to protect all the small bones in the hands and wrists. It also made gripping things difficult, but the new girl seemed to have no problems. "Thalia says that Hazel thinks that Daedalus is still alive—and how she knows that and how he did that in the first place is way over my head and I _certainly_ don't want to know—"

Thalia smirked a bit. So did Nico, for that matter.

"—but since she's a daughter of Pluto, I'm certainly not going to question it. But if anyone knows where the String is and/or how to destroy the Labyrinth, it's Daedalus. Find him, and most likely, you'll get your answers."

The other three looked at the fourth in amazement.

" _How_ is your parent Venus?" Annabeth finally asked, pausing in cleaning the chocolate out of her hair with a towel. "I know Athena would be proud to claim you."

"I was top in my class for Tactical and Torture," she deadpanned. Thalia looked alarmed and she broke, cracking a wide grin. "Well, Tactical, at least."

"Well, that's an interesting discussion to walk into," Percy drawled, causing all four to spin around.

"Oh my gods, what happened?" Thalia said, looking at her soaked cousins. "Why are you up? Are you okay?"

The fourth girl disappeared into the hallway.

Percy was cleaning himself up, drawing all the water out of his clothes and tossing it into the sink behind them. "We're fine. Poseidon was reassuring himself that I was actually alive and Nico joined me in gossiping about gossipy gods."

"Try saying that three times fast," the as-of-yet unnamed Venus girl said, returning with a fluffy towel and tossing it to Nico.

"I'm good," Nico said absently. "Who're you?"

She held out her hand to shake. "Piper McClean, daughter of Venus, legionnaire of the Fifth Cohort, general partner-in-crime."

Percy pointed at her, mock-suspicion written all over his face. "You're going to be trouble, I can just tell."

"Why, thank you, Mr. Jackson," she said sweetly with a small curtsey.

Percy paused in drawing the water out of his clothes. "…don't call me that again. That's just weird."

Thalia cracked up, almost snorting her cocoa.

"So why _are_ we all up at an ungodly hour of the morning?" Clarisse said dryly.

"Demigod dream," Thalia answered promptly.

"Poseidon all but knocking in my window," Percy said.

"…I'd had enough sleep already?" Nico said hesitantly.

"Reading a murder mystery just before bed is not conducive to sleep," Annabeth said dryly.

"This is actually my normal time of day," Piper admitted. "I'm one of the few that pulls the night shift as a guard voluntarily, and since I'm a night owl anyway…" She shrugged.

" _Guard?_ " Nico asked incredulously.

"Don't knock it 'til you try it," Clarisse said, draining her cup.

"Shut up, Clarisse, you don't even remember it," Annabeth said, rolling her eyes.

Piper looked extremely amused. "Yes, _guard_. Both the entrance to the Tunnel and the _Praetoria_ has a round-the-clock guard on it. Unless they have enough volunteers, straws get picked. Those who get picked—or volunteer—have different schedules than the rest of the legion. I get off shift at five, go to bed at six, and tend to wake up at about two or three in the afternoon. There's training, and I can catch War Games on Fridays, some downtime, and then I go on shift at ten in the evening. Most people don't like it because it completely flips their nights and days for only a day, no matter the leniency that most officers show to us. Me, I volunteer every day, so I don't have to worry about suddenly flip-flopping."

Percy shook his head. "I room with Jason, and he infected me with his get-up-at-the-buttcrack-of-dawn syndrome. I definitely couldn't do that."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Thalia muttered into her cup. "I _like_ sleeping my mornings away. At least B gets up at a reasonable nine instead of _five_."

Annabeth just laughed. "I can go to sleep wherever, and I don't sleep for longer than eight hours. And if I need more, I sleep for eight hours, get up and wander around for an hour, and then go back to sleep for another eight hours."

"You have your body _trained_ , girl," Thalia exclaimed. "Wish I could do that."

Okay, _that_ was a very girly side of Thalia that Nico had never seen before.

They all looked at him, and for a moment, he was caught off-guard. "I live with these crazies," he said, gesturing to Thalia and Percy. "Do you _really_ expect me to have an actual sleeping schedule with half the monsters in New York camped out on our front doorstep, _plus_ their own sleeping schedules? I got put in a room with Percy and Jason at one point. Percy sleeps like the dead and Jason snores like you would not _believe_."

Piper just about busted a gut laughing.

"If anyone gets to be sleeping 'like the dead', it's _you_ , Nick," Percy said, elbowing him playfully.

"Well, I'm _sor-ree_ that there isn't any adequate sea-affiliated descriptions of being unconscious every time your head hits the pillow," Nico snarked back.

Percy snorted and tossed him a quarter. Nico caught it deftly and pocketed it.

"…I don't understand how the quarter came into this," Annabeth admitted.

"Okay, good, I thought it was just me," Piper said, relieved.

"You ever hear the old saying, 'twenty-five cent words'?" Thalia asked. "It's our way of teaching ourselves how to use new words, since most of the six of us don't have much or any formal education. Percy and Nico are the best with languages, so they tend to flip each other coins a lot."

"Especially if we get to arguing," Nico said dryly.

"Nico's actually a genius when it comes to languages," Percy said, bumping his cousin's shoulder gently. Nico wished he could get rid of the heat he could feel rising in his neck. "Greek and Latin come naturally, and English is my first language, but Annabeth is utterly failing to teach me Spanish or anything else."

"How many languages do you know?" Piper asked.

"Seven," Nico muttered.

"Fluently," Percy added.

"English, Ancient Greek, and Latin," Piper said, counting them off. "What are the other four?"

"Italian is my first language," Nico mumbled. "And I cheated a bit because Spanish and French are both derived from Latin, which comes naturally anyway. And Mandarin Chinese, because I kept getting stuck in China with no way to communicate."

"English is your second language?" Piper asked, surprised.

"Third," Nico corrected. "Italian, Ancient Greek, English, Spanish, Latin, French, and Mandarin Chinese, in that order."

"I thought you learned Greek when you came to us," Thalia said.

He shook his head. "I learned Italian with my mother and Greek from Dad."

"…isn't your Dad the god of the Underworld? And aren't they supposed to stay away from us demigods?" Piper said uncertainly.

Nico grimaced. "Dad's…a bit of a rebel. I was born in 1937. There's a magic casino in Vegas that slows time inside to the point that you could be in there an hour and five days will pass outside. Or three weeks will span seventy years."

" _Ooookay_. I knew that our mythology-riddled world was seriously messed up, but that's a new level," Piper said. Then, belatedly looking mildly alarmed, "No offense."

Nico cracked a smile. "None taken."

Clarisse slid a mug of chocolate to Percy. "Could we get back to what we were discussing before?"

Annabeth settled back onto her island counter with her mug refilled, Percy sliding in next to her, shoulders bumping. Nico hopped up onto the counter by the stove, undaunted by the daughter of Ares eyeing him warily.

"We were talking about our as-of-yet unfinished quest in the Labyrinth," Annabeth explained, catching the two boys up. "The original plan had been to find Ariadne's String, which is presumably with Daedalus, the man who originally created the Labyrinth a couple thousand years ago."

"He's also cheated Death about a bazillion times," Nico said.

"Precisely," Annabeth said, confusing him. "It was evident already that when we found her, Hazel was living in the Labyrinth and knew how to get around. Thalia told me about a certain conversation involving escaped souls and a green Bianca—"

Percy snorted with laughter.

"—and if anyone has a chance of finding him, it's going to be Hazel. You two probably walked in around us discussing the actual objectives of the mission—"

"We did," Nico confirmed. "Right before 'the mission objectives have changed' from Clarisse."

"Good," Annabeth said. "So you know that the mission is to find Daedalus—which, really, shouldn't be too hard with Hazel. But getting him to divulge information, namely, the location of Ariadne's String and how to destroy the Labyrinth, will be much harder."

"Are we still counting this as the same quest?" Percy asked. "Because, um, Grover is scared to death of Tyson and Tyson is allergic to Grover. Literally."

Piper bit her lip. "Is it bad that I want to laugh?"

"No, I really wanted to as well when that piece of information came out," Nico said dryly.

"Tyson didn't really want to be here, anyway," Annabeth admitted. "He's really only sticking around for Percy, and he likes me for unknown reasons."

"I almost killed him the first time I saw him hug her," Clarisse said.

"You're nice to him, Annabeth. Of course he likes you," Thalia said.

Annabeth shook her head. "Trust me, I wasn't at first. I found him in New York and he followed me to the hotel I was staying at, and I almost dusted him right then and there. I would have, but the stupid housekeeping person was there and believed that Tyson was his helper."

"Oh, gods," Nico groaned.

"Back on topic, guys," Thalia said. "People going on the quest, and whether or not we are including both Tyson and Grover."

"Hazel, as long as she agrees," Percy said. "And Annabeth, since that's who the quest was issued to."

Annabeth sighed. "I know that they seem really unlikely, but I've seen them actually work together." She paused. "It's only in do-or-die situations, but they _have_ worked together."

There were several snickers and titters and snorts all around the kitchen.

"So, Hazel, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover," Thalia said reluctantly. "I don't really like Hazel without at least another one of us—"

"Percy," Annabeth said immediately. She turned to her boyfriend. "If you're up for it. After being blasted out of a volcano and then stabbed within weeks of each other, I get it if you aren't."

"Whoa, wait," Piper interjected, holding up her hands like 'stop'. "Percy, you got blasted out of a volcano? Does this volcano happen to go by the name—"

"Of Mount St. Helens?" Percy asked dryly. "Of course, but not _that_ Mount St. Helens. Different one. In Washington."

Piper looked infuriated, not amused. "Do you know the _headaches_ and the _deaths_ that's causing?! Not only did half a million mortals have to be evacuated, but also another sanctuary stationed there, _and_ you almost released Typhon! What were you _THINKING?!_ "

Percy reeled, looking sick. Thalia reached over casually and decked Piper. The younger girl staggered into the island, almost sprawling across it, and making Annabeth and Percy jump out of the way.

"You," Thalia said calmly, swirling the dregs of her cocoa with her left hand, "do not get to get mad about something that you don't know the specifics of. Got it?"

"Percy blew up the volcano to try to kill Kronos again," Nico spat, half in front of his cousin with his left arm out protectively. "He blew it up to give Annabeth, Hazel, Tyson, and Grover time to get away from the newly-live Time Lord. He almost _killed_ himself when he did it."

Piper pressed an armored hand to her already-swelling cheek, stunned. She blinked twice and inhaled slowly. "My apologies," she said lowly, multi-colored eyes focusing with a little bit of difficulty on Percy's stricken face. Percy seemed to come out of a stupor with her words.

With a nonchalance that stunned a few, Percy summoned the remaining water from Nico's clothes and solidified it into ice directly onto her face. His eyes were still a half stricken and half stony when he turned to Thalia. "I would appreciate it if you left."

Nico turned incredulous eyes to his cousin, and realized that this was responsible and Prophecy-wielding Percy, not the half-irreverent and half-playful Percy that he was used to. Then he looked at his other cousin, and found her judging Percy with the same considering look that Nico was certain was the same expression that he'd been wearing not two seconds before. She silently set her empty mug on the counter and passed Percy by, into the hallway, and tapped him twice on the shoulder on the way.

_I want to talk to you too, Mister._

"Annabeth."

The blonde was still pressed to the opposite counter where she had jumped out of Piper's way. She looked a little startled at her quietly-spoken name, but acquiesced with the unspoken request. Clarisse quickly set down her mug and quickly followed her younger pseudo-sister with the muttered words of, "I'll make sure that she actually gets to sleep," to Percy.

That left Percy, still rightfully stony; Piper, still sprawled across the island; and Nico, who wasn't quite sure where Percy wanted him. Percy said nothing to Nico, though, silently reaching over to Piper and helping her off the island and settling her into a chair in the adjacent breakfast nook. Piper occasionally touched her hard cheek, coated in a quarter-inch of ice.

Nico shifted uncomfortably. Did he sit? Did he stay where he was? Did he leave? Did he go over to where Percy was, almost bowed over the stove?

"Deaths?"

The question caused both Nico and Piper to jump.

Piper swallowed loudly enough to be heard by Nico, and probably by Percy as well. "Deaths," she confirmed bleakly.

The faucet creaked. Nico eyed it warily while padding across the kitchen to Percy.

"I should have realized that it was a world-threatening situation," Piper said after a moment, her words slightly muffled by her jaw being held immobile by the ice on one side. "I don't know why I assumed it wasn't—"

"Who did you lose?"

Nico closed his eyes and leaned into his cousin, wrapping both arms around his waist. He normally cursed the fact that he was so short, but Percy seemed to take comfort in attempting to comfort _Nico_ , hugging Nico back and resting one cheek on the edge of Nico's hairline, so he was okay with his lack of height for the moment.

Piper now seemed reluctant, but it made her voice no less pain-filled. "My father." She hesitated. "I've hardly seen him since I was nine, but…"

Percy gently disentangled himself from Nico and went over and grasped her hands. "I see my mother for perhaps three months out of a year since I was seven. Some would argue that it would be more appropriate to see Thalia as my mother. But Thalia is a much older, very over-protective sister. I could not love Sally Jackson more, and I would be devastated if I lost her."

Nico's eyes burned as he realized why Percy let him stay. Loving parent lost was a foreign affair for the other three girls—but Nico had lost his own loving mother only four years ago, to him.

"If you want or need to get away from the Camp, there's an apartment in Lower East Side, Manhattan, that's open to you," Percy said softly.

Piper let out a broken laugh. "With my father's estate, I could probably _buy_ a building and live there."

"But it wouldn't have Sally Jackson in it, and Sally Jackson is the nicest woman in the world," Nico said softly.

"And she makes some killer cookies," Percy said wetly, smiling a bit.

Piper laughed through her tears. "I-I have to get this weird power under control before I come."

"Piper," Nico said softly, smirking a bit, "you're talking to the experts in weird powers."

It was hard to see Percy as the fourteen-year-old kid he was supposed to be when he looked so strong and so sad. Piper had long given into Percy's embrace of her hands, and had ended up forehead-to-forehead with him, tears dripping down her face.

"I—" she swallowed nervously. "I have to monitor m-my speech constantly. I can't ask someone to do something directly, because half the time they'll get this—this glazed look and do it whether they wanted to or not. I end up telling them what I would like them to do, b-but sometimes I'm not careful enough and I can't even feel what I'm doing."

"Charmspeak," Nico breathed.

Percy pulled back, looking at his cousin. "You know what this is?"

"Persephone and Aphrodite like getting together for girls' nights," Nico said. "But Persephone likes me for some reason that I've yet to figure out, and she told me to beware the charmspeakers that Aphrodite—or Venus, in your case—occasionally produces. The user has total control over the person it's being used on. The person has an infatuation with the charmspeaker for however long they're under her spell. Percy, you met Circe."

Back in March, Percy, Jason, and Annabeth had gone to Chicago, following some obscure trail of some monster even more obscure. They ran into the goddess instead, and unfortunately, she had been in a pranking mood. Percy had been turned into a hamster, Jason into a seeded dandelion, and Annabeth into a jaw-dropping vision of Ancient Greek beauty. Nico had been sick with worry, and then with laughter once his cousins were turned back to normal by a semi-helpful Hermes.

"That was charmspeak?" Percy asked uncertainly.

Nico looked at Piper, and nodded at her, essentially giving permission.

Piper took a deep breath, settling her nerves. "Nico, come here."

Her voice rang through the short distance like a series of chiming bells, melodic and beautiful. Nico twitched as her power settled over him, encouraging, whispering.

_Come here come here come here come here_

_Nico come here_

_Nico come here_

Her voice was beautiful, rhythmic and soothing and forceful all at once, and it was enchanting. He wanted to come closer to the source, he would do anything to hear more.

_Ni-co come here, here here here_

_Come here come here_

He took a step, and then another, instinctively maneuvering around the island.

_Ni-co come here_

_Ni-co come here_

_Ni-co co-ome here_

_Ni-co co-ome here_

_Ni-ii-co co-o-ome here_

_Co-o-ome he-ere._

All of a sudden he was standing in front of Piper and he shook his head to clear his head from the imagined lullaby. Percy was shaking his head as well, despite her power not being directed at him.

"You would have a killer voice if you decided to be a singer," Nico said honestly.

"It's like…a siren."

"Please don't tell me you have experience with those," Nico told his cousin.

"I don't," Percy said. Nico looked at him skeptically. "I don't! Thalia kept us away from large bodies of water because they tend to have larger baddies lurking in them."

"Thank the gods," Nico sighed. He turned to Piper. "Sirens and misadventures aside, you already know to be careful, and now you know what it's called."

She nodded, wiping her face of tears.

"Sometimes just naming it makes it easier to control," Percy said. "Thalia likes making little balls of lightning and throwing them at some weaker monsters to watch them go poof. Well, she hit me with one of those at one point on accident—I think I was nine, just after the Atlas incident—and the next thing I know, I'm in the nearest hospital, being treated for a full-on lightning strike by the mortals."

Nico looked at Percy incredulously. He hadn't known that story.

Piper had pulled away and was trying to compose herself. "Hey," Percy said, catching her arm and her attention. "Thalia refused to touch me or even gesture at me too hard for the next three months. She then tried taking me back to Mom, almost crippling herself from crying so hard, saying that she almost killed me. Mom almost thumped her over the head and told her to get her 'plasma-ball throwing ass into gear and train it into submission'—quote."

Nico laughed.

"She exploded seven microwaves in two months," Percy added, also laughing. "And the first six were exploded in the first two and a half weeks. I had no idea that you could buy microwaves in bulk, but Mom managed it."

Piper cracked up.

"But the point to this story is that Thalia researched things about plasma and electricity and she started calling it such. She trained her powers to the word so she didn't end up accidentally doing it anymore, like she had before. It's probably subconscious by now, but we've all trained our powers into submission."

"And we're still learning control and control of new powers as they spring up," Nico said dryly.

"You do _not_ get to blame me for the fog!"

"Who else am I going to blame? Thalia? You were the one having the dream! That freaked me out—do you know how freaky it is to suddenly have some kind of—"

Piper looked bewildered. "Fog?"

Percy opened his mouth—probably to argue with Nico some more—but shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Do you feel better yet?"

She snorted. "Could you get the ice off?"

The ice abruptly melted off her face, forming a churning ball of water over his fingers. Piper watched it with open fascination. "That's so cool," she murmured. "And yeah, I do feel a bit better."

"You'll be okay with Nico?" Percy checked.

Nico flapped a hand at him. "Go kill Thalia with guilt and adorableness."

"Nico!" Percy squawked, face flooding with color.

"He's really good at guilting people into submission, especially us cousins," Nico confided to an almost-giggling Piper. "You should see his eyes when he really gets into it. He looks like a sad baby se—"

"Nico!"

"-al."

"I do not look like a seal!"

"You do," Nico said flatly. "If seals had fluffy hair and green eyes, they would be you. Now, _shoo_."

Face flaming, Percy left.

Once safely out of earshot, Nico sniggered and Piper collapsed into giggles. "I love winding him up," Nico laughed. "But, unfortunately for us, he really does actually look like a sad baby seal. I'm never certain if I'm more disgusted at myself or him when he pulls those out."

Piper calmed. "Will Thalia…?"

"Thalia will be fine," Nico assured her. "And so will Percy, for that matter." He hesitated a moment, then continued, more gently. "The six of us generally don't have a history of missing dead or gone parents. Thalia and Jason's mother was abusive, Hazel loves her mother but admits she had some definite faults that led to her being possessed by Gaea, and my mother was a beautiful, kindly woman."

"…what happened?"

"Do understand that I was born in 1938," Nico said dryly. Her face turned blank with shock and disbelief, and Nico continued blithely. "In 1945, the Oracle gave the infamous Great Prophecy, and as Hades children, B and I were at the top of the list. Zeus attempted to kill us while Hades was still trying to convince my mother to go into hiding. She was killed in the lightning blast, but he was fast enough to protect Bianca and I from harm. Bianca and I were put into a time-warping casino for three weeks, and when one of our father's handmaidens was sent to fetch us, it was three summers ago."

"…you are suddenly a lot weirder than I thought you were," Piper managed.

Nico smirked. "How's your stomach? You should ask Hazel how _she_ came to get here."

"I got the rundown," Piper said dryly. "And that's really all I need."

Nico shook his head. "Back to the point. Percy's the only one whose parent is living and loving, and I was the only one immediately available with experience of losing a loving parent."

She took a deep, shuddering breath. "I would go weeks without seeing him, and half the time I would be in trouble again when I did see him."

Nico smiled bitterly. "Vicious cycle, isn't it?"

* * *

"So Percy, Hazel, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover are venturing in the demigodly version of no-man's land, of which has almost killed Percy twice in less than a month," Sally said dryly from the other side of the IM. "Which, by the way, as much as Percy likes breaking records, that's not the best one to break. What did I say?"

The last part was directed at the looks exchanged between the Cousins and Annabeth.

"That doesn't make any sense," Annabeth finally said, directed at no one. "Why would a prophecy for one quest foretell the next?"

"It's a really important quest?" Jason suggested weakly.

"Just look at how many things have gone wrong with this, and how many things and people have been found," Thalia said. "It's a little crazy, but this quest is obviously more important than it seems."

"We're trying to stop a war," Bianca pointed out. "That's pretty damn important if you ask me."

"The war's already started, though," Jason said. "Just ask Percy."

Percy thumped him soundly. Jason squawked in protest. "Let's not ponder the intricacies of fate," Percy said mockingly. "Yes, I'm going to see if I can endanger my life for a third time in two months, Mom."

She shook her head, obviously amused as she cracked eggs into a bowl. "You're good about keeping your promises," she said, a grin tugging at her lips. "I'm not happy that you endangered your life in the first place, but at least you got out of it alive."

Thalia covered a snort. Bianca, Nico, Hazel, and Annabeth looked at her questioningly.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Mom thought I'd died at one point when I was eleven. She lit a fire in the living room, tossed some ambrosia into it, and stuck her head into it like it was a damned Floo. She proceeded to address Hades and tell him that if I was dead, he'd better stick me in the Fields of Punishment, cleaning dirty underwear for the rest of eternity, otherwise she was going to come down there and drag me out of there by my little toes."

Annabeth covered her mouth, muffling a laugh. Bianca coughed twice, a grin halfway suppressed on her face. Nico buried his face into his hands. Jason snickered quietly. Hazel looked amazed.

Sally just looked mildly smug. And perhaps slightly mischievous.

"I recognize that face," Jason said, peering at the IM. "Oh, I know where I know that face. It's what I see on Percy's every time he decides to do something stupid."

Percy cracked up at his mother's _look_ at his cousin.

"Back on track," Bianca said. "We just wanted to let you know that Nico and Jason are staying here, Thalia and I'll be coming home, and the rest of them are going back into the Labyrinth."

"Standard promise," Percy said, smirking a little.

"Standard promise?" Nico asked.

"I'll explain later," Jason said.

"You better, Perseus Jackson, and that goes for you too, Hazel," Sally said, shaking her hand—the one that held the whisk that she was currently using—threateningly at the IM.

Hazel looked at Percy.

"You know, coming back alive, unmaimed, and not comatose?"

Hazel shook her head. "Yeah, I'll agree to that."

 _So that's what the standard promise is,_ Nico thought.

"Also, Thalia, before you—"

"Hello."

The demigods fell silent at the unexpected male voice, out of sight of the IM. Percy swallowed as he saw his mother reach for a discarded knife surreptitiously.

"Hello," she said cautiously.

"Your door was open," the man said. "Thought you should know."

Her fingers curled around the knife silently. "Oh, goodness. That stupid latch never clicks shut all the way. Thank you so much."

Nico's heart thudded in his chest. He didn't dare shadow travel to the apartment and overreact, because he would travel straight to the brightly-lit kitchen, and that would definitely catch the mortal's attention.

"I just moved in a few days ago," the man said. "I'm in the apartment a few doors down. My name is Francis Sweeney, how do you do?"

Sally smiled tightly. Her pupils were dilated with the threat and adrenaline. "I'm doing well. My name is Sally Jackson."

"Good," the man murmured. He stepped closer, just barely out of sight. Nico could see the edges of a tattered gray suit jacket. "I'd hate to interrupt a lovely lady of her lunch—"

Percy made an almost inaudible noise of disgust. Nico was inclined to agree. This creep had no chance with Sally, not in the least because of the demigods or even her former lover—but because of Sally herself, and her current boyfriend.

"You are pushing the boundaries of social niceties, Mr. Sweeney," she said levelly.

The man lunged, and Nico dove for the shadows, cutting off Thalia's scream of fear.

When he got there, he stopped and stared. Sally had evidently been paying more attention to their training sessions than anyone had noticed, because she had him pinned rather effectively. The man's calves were between Sally's calves and thighs as she sat back on her haunches, and the stranger's hands were occupied with holding himself up so as to not slit his own throat with Sally's evidently wickedly sharp knife. He was belly down on the floor, and anything more than a twitch would cut him in a very lethal spot.

"Miss Sally, you're scary," was the only thing he said after a moment.

Her laugh was more than a little hysterical.

* * *

Hazel was a sweet girl, but it seemed that Nico was the only one not surprised when she had been left alone in the room with the stranger for all of six minutes and thirteen seconds before he started to talk. Her parentage alone made hardened demigods shudder, and that wasn't even factoring in the fact that she was a dead person escaped from the Underworld through extremely questionable methods. Even Thalia balked at that the first time Hazel revealed anything.

Although, Nico was also the only one with the dubious pleasure of seeing Hazel well and truly angry.

"He's ready to talk," she announced, stepping from the room. Her cheerful smile, for once, did not reach her eyes, giving her an almost doll-like appearance. Creepy? Definitely. Effective? Definitely.

The Cousins looked at one another, as if they could communicate telepathically. Nico shook his head. "Thalia, you're staying with me and guarding this guy and Miss Sally. Hazel, you're taking the rest to Camp. Percy and Hazel have a quest to finish, and Jason and Bianca can coordinate with the Greeks and Romans to drive off any lasting animosity."

Percy flipped him a quarter and Nico smoothly pocketed it, smiling all the same.

They all looked at the door, behind which the would-be attacker was being held.

"Nico's right," Thalia finally said. "The war still goes on. There are things to be done. We have it handled, so shoo."

For lack of a better place to put him, they put him in the storage room. Sally kept extra doors, door knobs, latches, phones, and faucets in the room, as well as an extra microwave that was left over from Sally's bulk buy of them. It wasn't quite an interrogation room, but it worked for them.

Nico and Thalia entered.

"Are child soldiers the norm now?" The attacker seemed genuinely curious. Then he ruined that with, "Or is this a joke?"

"No joke, I assure you," Nico said easily, sliding into the chair across from where the man was rather thoroughly bound.

"You're—what, eight? Nine?"

"Almost seventy," Nico said, amused at the half-truth. "Hazel—the one who just left—is seventy-seven, if that helps."

It was very satisfying to see the man swallow in shock.

"Now," he said slowly, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together. "Let's _talk_ , about your assault on my adoptive mother."

He and Thalia were treated to a horrifying exposé of the Cleveland Torso Murderer, Kronos, Sweeney's involvement in both, his understanding of what happened, and the one odd question about the microwave.

("What is that?"

"…it's a microwave. Haven't you ever seen a microwave before?"

"No.")

Nico also had to correct him on the timeline.

("You're actually eighty years in the future. Immortals tend to have a rather skewed concept of time, especially immortals that have spent the last three thousand years chopped up in a million pieces."

"Wonderful."

"You know, if you weren't a psycho serial killer, I could like you. Your sarcasm appeals to my sensibilities."

"…Nico, please tell me that was sarcasm.")

"So what do we do with you now?" Nico asked Doctor Francis Sweeney. "No, you don't get to answer that question."

"It was addressed to me."

"Then consider it rhetorical. Thalia, what do we do with him now?"

The twenty-two-year-old considered him frankly. "We could kill him. I know that I wouldn't have any qualms about killing a serial killer. He's no better than the monsters, _and_ he attacked Sally with the intention of beheading and dismembering her."

To be honest, Nico was ready to kill him since he jumped into the shadows in an attempt to save Sally before she got seriously hurt. "My sword would just turn him into dust, so we wouldn't even have to hide a body," Nico added. "I'm more worried about time paradoxes. He's obviously been brought forward, but we don't know from when or where, or even how to return him if we have to."

Francis Sweeney was now actually looking slightly nervous.

"Would Hades be of any help?" Thalia asked.

Nico considered it. "I _could_ ask him if he has Sweeney on record. If he doesn't, then that means that he dies in this time, rather than in the past time."

"Yes, go ask him," Thalia said.

Nico eyed Sweeney, then Thalia. He decided that Thalia could easily defend herself if Miss Sally could subdue him in less than five seconds, and dropped through the shadows.

Just before he dropped out of hearing, he heard Sweeney ask, "So if he's seventy, how old is the lady?!"

He cackled all the way to the Underworld.

Misdirection was always fun.

* * *

Getting yelled at by a god because of your idiotic cousin was irritating, Nico decided. He also decided that he would pass on Hades's lecture of screwing with the Underworld in his comatose state was not acceptable behavior. (He had already decided to _not_ tell Hades that a) yelling at Nico for his cousin would not solve anything, and b) yelling at Percy would also probably not solve anything.)

This was why his first words to Thalia upon coming back were, "Remind me to lecture Percy at my scariest when he comes back."

Her response was to laugh herself silly, of course.

"Although, since your soul isn't yet in the Underworld, that means that we can do whatever we want to you," Nico said cheerfully to Sweeney.

"Unfortunately, though," Thalia cut in, "we're supposed to be the good guys."

Nico looked at her, mock-surprised. "We _are?_ Have you _read_ some of the stories of the gods?"

Thalia paused. "Fair enough. Carry on."

Nico had to bite his lip to keep from laughing aloud at the simultaneously disturbed and alarmed look on Sweeney's face.

"Buuuuut," Nico said, drawing out the word. "You're lucky. My father intends to correct this oversight immediately. So I've been tasked with taking you to the Judgement pavilion to make sure that you really are the Cleveland Torso Murderer, and then after that, to the Fields of Punishment." Nico paused, and leaned in, as if sharing a deep secret. "Personally, I'm hoping that you'll still be alive by the time we get to that point. Mortal flesh burns so much easier than ghostly plasma."

When he came back with an extremely smug smirk on his face, Thalia looked up from her biology homework and told him, "You're really creepy for an eleven-year-old."

And Nico, being who he is, smiled and said, "Why, thank you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, first question that I've gotten on ff.net about a hundred times (no joke): **Is Piper actually Roman?** The answer is _yes_. Piper is so ill-fitted with her siblings in Cabin 10 that I honestly think that she would have done a hell of a lot better as a Roman. And, you know, I just like messing with you guys. ;)
> 
> Second question: **when will this be updated?** I am fresh out of pre-written chapters for this story, though there is one more that just needs to be edited before I post, though that won't be until sometime in May, for reasons listed in the next paragraph.
> 
> Thank you for your well-wishes, those of you who know! Those who don't, my previous illness came back to haunt me and tried to actively kill me. I'm currently catching up on my schoolwork (in which all of my classes are high-level maths, what a semester to try to die in o.O), going through PT to be able to walk to and from my classes without aid, preparing to transfer to my new college, and will be travelling extensively for the rest of the month. It's ridiculous. I kind of hate April right now, no joke.
> 
> Also, HEED THE TAGS. They have been updated. There is one up there that says, "Beware ridiculous update time", and that is no exaggeration. Anyone on ff.net knows that I haven't actually updated this story in almost a year and a half. :( I'm working on getting both time and muse back to this story to finish it. I've plotted it out: there should be two or three more chapters with BotL, then six or seven with TLO. I originally planned to go through the Second Giant War...but to be honest, I need a break from this 'verse. This thing stresses me out. I've been working on this thing for four and a half years now, and the majority of it was posted in the first six months.
> 
> I word-vomited on you guys. Sorry. I'll shut up. I'll see you people sometime in May, fingers crossed.


	13. Daedalus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hazel is never driving again, Poseidon is protective and unhappy, and the Cousins are worse than any bad luck spell. If bad luck spells exist.

Hazel was a liar.

Okay, so, that might be a bit harsh, but anyone remotely familiar with her powers would understand that she was a liar of the highest capability, and not necessarily because of her father. (Hazel's father is _Hades_ , not Hermes. Or, well, _Pluto_ , not Mercury, though Mercury wasn't really known for his tricks like his counterpart was.)

But her powers extended to precious metals and stones. How limiting was that, to consider nothing but platinum and gold and rubies to be able to make something beautiful. Titanium is valuable, strong and lightweight and able to carry things much heavier than itself for long distances under extreme wear. Aluminum was valuable, the modern world could hardly live without its abundancy.

And don't get her started on copper. Everywhere she went, there was copper. Copper, copper, copper. It was in the walls, in the appliances, in some tables, on some doorknobs, wrapped around and through delicate vases—everywhere. The modern world ran on copper. No copper, and everything would fall apart.

She sensed the metals on a spectrum that she could only describe as light but sensed through something between taste and smell. Platinum smelled like the dark reddish-violet of grapes, and gold tasted blue. Titanium was a sunny yellow smell and copper tasted almost like the same burnt orange that it appeared in real life.

Hazel _loved_ the twenty-first century. Let's not misunderstand: there were things that Hazel missed about the 1930s. She was one of the few to not really be touched by the Great Depression. She missed her mother, the woman she was before Hazel's curse came to full fruition and she became bitter. She missed the movies, the ones that could go on and on and _on_ , with movies and cartoons ( _Tom and Jerry_ was the _best_ ) and news reports for a few cents. They were a welcome distraction from the poverty and hunger that surrounded her.

But here, lava-red steel skyscrapers towered everywhere she looked. Trump Tower glittered blue with gold. The Empire State Building that she watched grow over the news reports seethed with the burnt-orange copper of electronics, the gritty steel of the building itself, the freshly-cut-grass of titanium of vaults, and sprinkled with the royal blue of gold. It was her own personal smell/taste/sight marvel, better than any fireworks.

Here, she had her cousins. Here, there was the _future_. There were tiny little phones and Hazel wanted to get that NOOK that Barnes  & Noble was advertising and she took apart Sally's electric pencil sharpener, just to see how it ticked.

There was the dead and the monsters and the gods, and she had to watch her back constantly, yes. But that didn't mean that she couldn't appreciate the little things.

Currently, the "little things" involved watching her cousin, Percy, out of the corner of her eye. Hazel wasn't quite fifteen yet—in fact, if you disregarded her birthday, Hazel was just a few months younger than Percy—but she knew how to drive. Rephrase: she knew how to drive a stick-shift from 1939. Thalia caught her up in five minutes.

So, despite the fact that Hazel was a) not technically the oldest, b) underage, and c) didn't have papers from this _century_ , she was the one who ended up driving the four of them to the nearest Labyrinth entrance that wasn't the Met.

She wasn't entirely certain what she expected from her passengers, but the worst that she got wasn't even from her passengers: it was Thalia, who gave her a thirty-second dissertation on the traffic laws, which ones that are preferable to not break, which ones the rest of the world couldn't care less about, which ones the rest of the populace actively break (so watch out for those crazies), and the _unofficial_ traffic laws that really only apply to New York City.

Percy didn't even bat an eye at the whole thing, and while she half-wished that Jason would stop his running commentary—because driving while giggling like a loon would get them pulled over faster than anything else, probably—he didn't give her any lip, either. Bianca was fairly silent on the whole thing, like she expected nothing else than a fourteen-year-old girl who was supposed to be dead from drowning in oil seventy-odd years before to drive her to the nearest entrance to a magical, underground maze.

Put like that, she had to wonder how crazy her cousins' lives actually were, that they could take her and her story in stride, only hiccupping the faintest. It had been a dizzying month or so—who knew how long they had been in the Labyrinth in real time. And what was worse: her almost-normal-looking cousin who was sitting next to her in the passenger seat was either a) extremely patient with her freaking out about the whole shebang, b) missing, or c) stabbed and dying—at any given time. Though, admittedly, it was mostly dominated by the last two, what with Percy being missing for eight days at the beginning of their acquaintance and then stabbed and dying for the last three. Just under three weeks' worth of knowing her cousins, and Percy was recovering from being beaten within an inch of his life for the majority of it.

And here he was, marching back into trouble not even twelve hours after being actually healed.

Yes, she was fourteen. Yes, she was prone to doing stupid stuff irrationally, like every other teenager on planet Earth. Yes, she didn't always plan things out totally, whether it being marching into battle or choosing her breakfast. But Percy seemed to make it an art form.

Speaking of…

"Do we know what the Romans are doing now?" Hazel asked curiously. "I mean, as far as I know, they came because we asked for help defending the Camp. Now that the Camp has been defended for the second time…"

"Reyna said that the cohort that came to help were some of the most unconventional Romans they've had in years—she was hoping that they would get along better with us than they do with the rest of Camp Jupiter," Jason said.

Percy twisted all the way around to look at Jason—who was in the back seat—incredulously. "Seriously? When did this happen?"

Hazel bit her lip to suppress her laughter at Jason's extremely dry, "The last twenty years or so."

"No, when did this information get passed around, because I missed this!"

"You were busy being stabbed," Jason said.

Hazel choked on her inappropriate laugh.

"Jason!" Bianca exclaimed.

Percy spluttered with laughter. "It's okay, B. I don't think that anyone is going to forgive me about getting myself stabbed any time soon."

"You _survived_ , you daft—" Bianca started heatedly, but then cut herself off with a sharp growl. Jason leaned away from her. "No one else would have."

Hazel signaled to move over into the next lane.

"Precisely why I shouldn't have gotten stabbed," Percy said with a cheeky grin.

Hazel could hear Bianca's arms go up in the air in exasperation.

Of course, that was when something came out of a side street and slammed full-speed into the car. She says 'something' because it had no metal in it like a car would definitely have—no lava red steel or burnt orange copper or anything else.

Dangling from his seatbelt and banging against the door, Percy swore an oath that would have had Sally, Thalia, _and_ Hazel washing out his mouth with lye soap. The only reason why he was let off the hook was because the former two weren't there and the latter was _slightly_ distracted.

"Oh my gods," Bianca screeched in Hazel's ear.

The daughter of Pluto let out a _whuff_ of air as whatever had the car in it's grip shook it. "Don't touch anything metal!" Hazel yelled.

Hazel seized every bit of metal in the car with an iron grip with her powers and _wrenched_ as hard as she could. The roof crumpled a bit and the frame would probably be unsalvageable when she released it from her grip, but that was okay. The car went sailing anyway, three teenagers screaming like seven-year-old girls and a fourth gritting her teeth in concentration. Milliseconds later, the car's tires thumped safely to the ground, and Hazel put the pedal to the metal.

"Weeee're gonna die," Percy screeched, wide-eyed as Hazel wove in and out of heavy New York traffic, slowing other cars down enough for her to fit hers into the space left, triggering stop lights and causing freak accidents with aluminum cans to get pedestrians out of the way.

"Are you doing this, Hazel?!" Bianca asked incredulously.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up," Hazel chanted, the speedometer slowly creeping towards the seventy miles an hour marker, tearing through lower Manhattan like a bat out of hell.

Percy grabbed her shoulder to both brace himself physically and brace her magically. Hazel suddenly straddled a deep well of power that was Percy's, Jason's, and Bianca's power pooled together—something that she didn't actually need, but was useful for grounding herself.

Hazel said a bad word when the dragon settled down in front of them on the Williamsburg Bridge. Jason was startled out of using a bad word himself when she used a better one.

"A dragon," Percy said flatly.

"I can't remember the last time we fought a dragon," Jason agreed.

"I can't remember ever seeing a dragon before," Bianca said, sounding simultaneously fascinated and terrified. Hazel could see her face and hands pressed to the window to get a better look through her left side mirror.

"Well, you're in luck, folks," Hazel said, executing a perfect, slightly impossible illegal U-turn. "You won't have to fight a dragon today."

"How the _Hades_ —"

Hazel floored it, ignoring the startled yelps as she drew on Jason's power and made the car fly a little.

"We have so many cops after us," Jason said. He sounded downright amused.

"Wonderful," Hazel said. "Being chased by cops and a dragon while simultaneously being underage and seventy-seven. Universe, I am bored and lacking my six impossible things before breakfast. Throw something else at us so that we can have a good time."

" _HAZEL!_ " the entire car screamed.

Hazel let out a rather hysterical laugh.

" _You are never driving again!_ " Jason yelled.

"The look on my face should tell you just how much I _don't care_ about the ability to drive a hunk of metal propelled by poisonous combustion!"

Hazel roared down FDR Drive at a breakneck pace, praying to no one that she could outpace a dragon. She swerved onto East 42nd street and whipped into 3rd Avenue to a choir of honks, going in a fairly large loop to get onto the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

"Jason," she said. "We get to reenact the flying car incident in Harry Potter. I'll keep us in the air, you need to get us where we're going. Bianca…you're our invisibility booster."

"I feel like I should be offended," the daughter of Hades said.

"The Mist, B," Percy said. "You manipulate it better than I do."

"You got carried away with that metaphor, Hazel," Bianca informed her.

"No pop culture references, duly noted," Hazel said.

"Pop culture references are great outside of forming plans," Bianca corrected.

"You guys must have more ADHD than I do, because I seem to be the only one paying attention to the dragon at the end of the tunnel!" Jason said, exasperated.

"Have we thought about the problem of taking a metal car up into the air with a flight-enabled dragon?" Percy asked nervously. "Or the problem of taking three non-Zeus Big Three kids into the air?"

Hazel paused. "Um."

Then there was relative silence.

"Great," Percy said. "I feel so great about this plan."

"Jason," Hazel said. "Get ready."

"I'm ready," Jason said.

"One."

Hazel's foot hadn't let off a fraction of an inch on the gas pedal. The dragon peering underneath the tunnel was a little bit disarming, Hazel had to admit. Upside down dragon heads that appeared to be more curious than hungry was pretty disarming. Hazel really didn't trust the 'curious' expression as far as she could throw the dragon, though.

"Two."

She could feel Jason shifting, likely trying to ground himself or get comfortable.

"Three!"

She lifted the car almost straight up into the air, almost running into the very surprised dragon. The momentum of the car carried them forward a little bit—going ninety miles an hour through a tunnel will do that—and then they were flying high. Even though the windows were shut, Hazel could hear the massive amounts of wind that Jason was whipping up blowing over the car.

Hazel cut the engine, and Bianca and Percy yelped a bit. She gave them odd looks. "You do realize that this is not actually a flying car? That the engine is doesn't actually have to be on to keep this in the air?"

"You are _never_ driving again," Jason sighed.

Hazel laughed.

* * *

A thankfully uneventful hour later, they discovered just how hard it was to land without crashing.

"Left!" Hazel shrieked, the wheel twisted all the way to the left even though the tires had absolutely no influence on which way the car was going.

"Your other—CRAP!" Percy yelled when the winds pushed them right into the lake with a huge _FLOOOM_ of bubbles.

Hazel scrambled to get out of the sinking death trap, popping all the doors off in her haste. She swam to the surface and coughed. Bianca popped up next to her, breathing heavily for a moment before giving up and floating on her back.

The naiads were giving them some _seriously_ ugly looks. Hazel sighed. She gestured weakly and the car started sluggishly half-rolling, half-floating up the bottom of the lake to get out of the water.

As if to announce that it was well and truly done, the hood popped and the car let out a shudder and a huge puff of black smoke.

"Wonderful," Percy groaned.

"I'll get Sally a new one," Hazel said tiredly.

"At least it wasn't a Whomping Willow that we crashed into," Jason said.

Hazel inhaled water when she started to laugh and coughed instead.

"Out of the lake," Percy decided, and the water started pushing them gently to the shore.

Centurion Gwen helped Hazel up, laugh lines prominent around her eyes as she grinned. "Does it help if I say that that was probably the best entrance I've ever seen?"

"I don't know," Hazel said. "I'm not allowed to drive anymore even though I out-drove a dragon. And three-quarters of New York's police department. I only completely busted the car in the process."

"You _bent_ the _frame_ ," Nyssa from the Hephaestus cabin said in awe, her voice muffled because she was scooching under the soaked and smoking car. "How the hell did you drive it with a bent frame?"

"Don't touch it!" Hazel yelped. "You'll lose a hand!"

Beckendorf yanked Nyssa out from underneath the car by her ankle.

Bianca opened a hand and hellfire sprang around the car, sending people lurching backwards.

"I can control valuable stones and metals with my powers, but if anyone but me touches it after, they'll be cursed with bodily harm of some sort. The more valuable, the worse the curse. A ruby touched with my power is more like a grenade," Hazel said. "I drove it using my powers after the dragon picked us up and I managed to get it to drop us."

"Not to mention making us fly," Jason said. "That poor pigeon."

Hazel spotted Percy biting his lip, as though he was trying not to laugh at Jason's vague distress.

"What happened to the pigeon?" Gwen asked.

"It hit the car," Hazel said shortly. "The car of cursed metal that was going a hundred miles an hour through the sky."

Gwen followed Percy's expression and bit her lip to poorly disguise her grinning laughter.

"It was vaporized," Jason said gloomily.

"Jason," Bianca said, sounding exasperated. "It's a flying rat. There are plenty more pigeons. It's not like it was a macaw or a bald eagle."

Hazel resisted the urge to laugh at the mental image of a sudden _poof_ of blue-green and yellow feathers raining over New York City.

Jason grumbled.

"Good to see you up and moving," Gwen said, still grinning. She was looking at Percy when she said it.

"Good to _be_ up and moving," Percy said. "Don't count on it for too long."

Bianca slugged him in the arm. "You do another laughing-in-Death's-face stunt and I will lock you in the Underworld's palace with no one but Hades and Civil War skeletons for company for three weeks!"

"I think you just got threatened with the ultimate form of grounding," Jason said, grinning a bit.

"That's pretty ultimate," Hazel agreed. "Also, we did come here for a reason, and it wasn't grounded-by-Underworld. Percy and I have a quest to finish."

Percy gave her a questioning look.

"And Annabeth," Hazel added.

Percy nodded once.

"You have everything you need?" Jason asked quickly.

"It's in my cabin," Percy said. "You?"

"B and I will hold down the fort."

The two fist-bumped and then hugged briefly.

"See you on the other side," Jason said.

"Such faith," Percy teased.

Jason snorted, and with that, Percy walked away. Hazel waved at Jason and Bianca before following Percy down to the cabins.

At the crest of a hill, Hazel almost ran into the other demigod. He'd stopped.

"I don't understand," he said. "I don't understand why they would only build twelve cabins. There are gods more powerful than Zeus and they don't even get their name on the Honorable Mentions list. For Hera's sake, Hera doesn't even have kids, nor does she have a band of married women kicking butt and taking names."

"But she would be mad, if she didn't have a cabin," Hazel said reasonably.

"So is Hades, and he's a bit more immediately terrifying than Hera. Not to mention, he actually has kids," Percy pointed out. "Also, he's a member of the Big Three. What's the matter with this picture? Lady Hestia has a fire pit that she can attend to, but most don't even know that she exists anymore."

Hazel hesitated, trailing after Percy. He'd decided that loitering on the hill wasn't going to make a difference, so he decided that moving along would be better. She thought that Percy made some valid points, but also wondered and the financial feasibility of actually building new structures for other demigods of non-Olympian parents to stay in. Camp Half-Blood made their mortal money off of their strawberry farm. Hazel could see how they could break even when she accounted for godly powers allowing them to grow strawberries even out-of-season, but anything more?

It was unlikely. That would mean that they would have to petition the gods for help, or ask one of the demigods who had made it big in the mortal world.

It didn't mesh well with Percy's vision of suddenly building twenty or more cabins to house demigods, that was for sure.

They stepped into Percy's cabin, and Hazel was hit with a brick with the simultaneous sense of _wrong_ and _right_ , making her dizzy.

"Dad," Percy said heavily. "Leave her alone."

Hazel heaved in a breath when the clashing senses righted themselves.

"You're okay with Nick and B, what's your problem with Hazel?" Percy asked thin air.

"She's put you in danger," thin air responded.

Hazel whirled around in alarm, tripping over a box filled with Hera-knew-what and falling flat on her butt.

"I do just fine in putting myself in danger, and Hazel's generally pretty good about getting me _out_ of danger," Percy retorted, not even missing a beat.

Hazel wondered just how often Percy and Lord Poseidon had these kinds of chats to not even think twice about appearing in the cabin or responding to suddenly-appearing gods with no hesitation.

"She surrounded you in cursed metal and took you into the sky!" Poseidon yelled. "With a dragon in it! Not to mention getting the entire Council's attention when there were four Big Three demigods in a small car racing away from a dragon only slightly smaller than a skyscraper!"

"She saved our lives!" Percy retorted, not even looking up from his packing. "She drove a car irreparably broken with her powers only and made it so that we didn't have a rematch of Forks!"

Hazel had no idea what forks had to do with anything. Maybe it was a place. That poor place, being named after an eating utensil. She shook her head. _Focus, Hazel._

The god took a step back.

"Out," Percy said firmly, turning to his father and making a shooing motion with his hands. "If Thalia and I can set our various _talks_ aside until after the quest and everything involved in it, so can we. I don't need you menacing _my cousin_ just before we set off into a known demigod-killer."

Hazel's heart ached at the look Poseidon was giving Percy, like he was afraid he'd never see his son again. "Percy, give the god a hug. It's the most terrifying quest of the century and his only mortal son is on it," Hazel said shakily.

Lord Poseidon looked at her like she was simultaneously a fluffy kitten, Lady Athena, and a jack-in-the-box: cute, terrifying, and unpredictable. Hazel resisted the urge to giggle hysterically. Percy, however, slung his backpack over one shoulder and obligingly gave the god of the seas a hug. "Dad," he said, "I don't know if you've noticed, but it's pretty darned difficult to kill me."

The god just vanished into a puff of sea mist.

"Well," Percy said. "I think you just stunned the god of the seas, Hazel. Well done. Normally I'm the only one who can do that."

They snickered and giggled inappropriately all the way to the Athena cabin.

Hazel caught Jason eyeing them warily from a distance, and snickered even harder.

* * *

"No Tyson and Grover?" Percy checked with Annabeth as the three of them stood at the Camp's entrance to the Labyrinth.

"Tyson was called back to the forges," the blonde said. "Atlantis is going to be attacked soon, and Lord Poseidon wanted every available smith working. Grover found a lead on Pan."

"Pan?" Hazel asked.

"As in frying?" Percy asked.

"Pan, as in the god of wild places," Annabeth said.

"Oh yeah, you told me about this," Percy suddenly remembered.

"I haven't been told," Hazel said.

Annabeth nodded. "Mortals have been polluting the earth for so long that it was rumored that Pan had faded almost two thousand years ago. Satyrs never gave up, though, and regularly go out searching. It wasn't until recently that they started coming back. Damien, the son of Demeter, ended up finding the Golden Fleece. It puts out so much nature energy that satyrs thought that they had found Pan and went looking for it. The problem was, it was guarded by Polyphemus, a satyr-eating Cyclops from legends of old. Now that we have the Golden Fleece and Polyphemus is still stuck on an island in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, we don't have to worry about satyrs never coming back from their searches."

"That's disturbing," Hazel said.

"You don't get to talk about disturbing," Percy told her with a grin.

"And _no one_ found out that the satyrs were being eaten until recently? How did you find out?" Hazel asked, ignoring Percy.

"Nope," Annabeth confirmed. "It’s a story. Ethan poisoned Clarisse's tree, which holds up the barrier that was keeping monsters out and keeping this a safe haven. A few of us went on a quest to find something to either save Clarisse's tree or something to replace the barrier. We ended up finding the Golden Fleece almost by accident. Grover had disappeared around the same time, and he has an empathy link with Damien, which is how we even knew that there was a problem. Grover ended up mostly saving himself via wedding dress—"

"What?" Percy asked, laughing. "You didn't tell me this part!"

"Wedding dress?" Hazel said incredulously.

Annabeth hesitated, looking at the entrance to the Labyrinth. "Look, we'll have story time after the quest, I'll tell you guys the whole thing, but it's a long story. Let's finish this quest now?"

"Fair enough," Percy agreed.

Malcolm, son of Athena, waved at them from the watch pavilion, then went back to his book. Hazel thought that it was something involving math, and resolved to ask him about it when she got back.

The three of them looked at each other and jumped into the Labyrinth once more.

* * *

Hazel set off immediately, directly in front of them. This was despite the six other doorways offering other options. Her senses opened up, feeling the glittering flakes of mica and gold mixed with dead stone and clay. She could feel the shift of hallways down the immediate right path and the vibrations of something very large rattling through massive amounts of copper behind them.

She went forward, and tried not to let fear suffuse her scent or look like she was running.

"I think you told us that there was a specific unlock code to Daedalus's workshop, but I can't remember what it is," Annabeth told Hazel.

Hazel nodded, leading them into a doorway on the left. "And therefore, you think that I'm leading you in loop-de-loops, circles, or am just completely lost and/or nutty."

"I don't think you're nutty," Annabeth protested. "Confused, maybe, but not nutty!"

"Well, if it helps any, we just passed through Manhattan," Hazel said.

Percy and Annabeth gave her identical blank looks. It was fairly amusing, especially since they looked so different but were able to make the same face and get the same point across.

She could feel whatever had been charging through the copper barreling along behind them. Hazel slowed it down with a nice spot of gold. Very cursed gold, in fact.

"When we turned left, we passed through Manhattan," Hazel said. "Just under the Met, actually. From here, we're going to go three doors on the right, take another left, go through the arena that we went through before, then count sixty-five doors on the left and take the next right, climb through a window, turn left, and find the door."

"That's it?" Percy said sarcastically.

"Breathe," Annabeth laughed.

Hazel led them through another doorway on the left and it opened up into the arena, eerily empty without its master or his audience of monsters.

"This place gives me the creeps," Percy muttered.

"Hurry up, we don't know if something's coming," Annabeth said.

"Something's coming," Hazel said. "It's behind us. I've slowed it down a little with some gold, but there isn't all that much down here beyond some dust."

"Some gold?"

"Very cursed gold," Percy explained.

"Ah."

Annabeth sounded like she didn't understand despite her noise of understanding, but left it alone anyway. It wasn't a story that Hazel was fond of repeating, anyhow, so she was grateful to Annabeth for dropping it.

Doorways unfolded before her, thousands of possibilities echoing through her powers as she passed doorways. She silently counted the doorways on the left.

"Are we supposed to be going straight for this long?" Percy asked around doorway thirty-three.

"Hush," Hazel said absently. "Yes. Thirty-six, thirty-seven…thirty-eight—"

Annabeth said something in Greek that Hazel was fairly sure was a rather choicy oath, but didn't make a whole lot of sense to Hazel. She paused and looked at the daughter of Athena.

"Annabeth…?" Percy asked warily.

The blonde was looking down at the ground. Hazel felt whatever was after them tromp through the gold that she had set up.

"Keep moving," she urged, physically pushing the two of them along.

"This is igneous rock," Annabeth said.

"Bless you," Percy said.

"So?" Hazel asked.

"We're standing on a volcano."

"So?" Hazel asked again.

" _So_ , whatever's after us is likely the guardian of the volcano," Annabeth said. "And I'm not fireproof."

Percy, on the contrary, actually perked up at that tidbit of information. "The last guardian of the volcano that I met was pretty friendly."

"Are we counting _Kronos_?" Annabeth hissed.

"He's not a guardian, he was a fool for making his home base in a volcano," Percy said.

Hazel tuned out their conversation and concentrated on keeping count of the doors and an ear out for whatever was behind them.

"Sixty-four, sixty-five—right here," Hazel said, steering the lightly bickering couple through the next doorway on the right.

"What was next, climb through a window?" Annabeth said. "Should be pretty easy. Does it have to be any particular window?"

Hazel glanced around the sunroom they'd just walked into, complete with sunlight streaming through the windows. "Um. I don't know? I've never gone to Daedalus's place before. I've never needed to."

"Well then," Percy said, and busted a window with the butt of his sword.

The girls paused and looked at the demigod incredulously. "Was that really necessary?" Annabeth asked.

"It doesn't open," Percy said, demonstrating the lack of locks or sliders to indicate that it could open. "So, yeah, actually. Annabeth, this isn't exactly our first B&E."

Hazel looked at the two of them skeptically. "I'm never taking you two anywhere again."

Percy clambered through the window as he said, "That's okay. I'm never getting into a car with you behind the wheel again, so we're pretty even so far."

Annabeth stifled a laugh as she climbed over the broken glass. Hazel swiftly followed. "Turn left," she said, and followed her own directions.

"That's a wall."

"There's a door here," Hazel said confidently. She ran her hands over the smooth stone, searching for divots.

"This doesn't make any sense," Annabeth muttered as she looked for the door's key. "This should be in the oldest part of the maze. Instead, it looks like the side of a pub."

Hazel personally thought that it made perfect sense that it was in a more modern part of the Labyrinth: Daedalus was an engineer of the highest caliber. He wouldn't stand settling for stone when he could have steel and glass.

Percy jabbed something with his finger. "This is it," he said, and true to his word, a delta glowed pale blue.

Hazel couldn't help making Diagon Alley comparisons when the brick casually sidled out of the way, flipping over each other to make a short hallway with an arc. It was magic, to be sure, but when they walked through, it was a workshop that any engineer would drool over. Hazel's senses absolutely exploded with the sudden feedback and she staggered a bit, trying to control the input that she was getting from her powers.

Hazel liked taking things apart to figure out how they worked intrinsically, so seeing the guts of some circular thing spilled over one table was an absolute delight. Her cinnamon hair bounced wildly as she squealed quietly and managed to get to the table in three large bounds. She crouched, trying to figure out what the sphere was for from the parts that she could see. She was very intently focusing on not touching anything, either with her powers or with her hands.

"Oh, _wow_ ," Annabeth breathed. Hazel looked up to see the blonde looking at a laptop, sleeker than anything on the current market with a three-dimensional rendering of…something…on the screen.

"Holy shit," Percy exclaimed loudly from behind a large filing cabinet, a few yards to Annabeth's left. "Guys, come look at these!"

Hazel left the sphere and Annabeth left the laptop to come look at whatever Percy was 'ooh'ing at.

"They're wings," Hazel said.

"Look at the _craftsmanship_ ," Annabeth exclaimed, looking at the feathers— _metal feathers_. "The level of detail is exquisite. It would take us years to be able to replicate just a few feathers, and we would have to have lasers—just _look_ , it has the interlocking tines to it!"

Hazel knew, she could sense it. The feathers in front of her—copper, steel, silver, brass—hummed with magic unique to Athena's and Hephaestus's children.

The daughter of Pluto backed up and almost ran over Annabeth. "Oops, sorry," she said.

"No problem," the blonde said, distracted.

Percy squeaked in alarm and both girls whipped their heads around to see an automatronic bird—perhaps a hawk? an eagle?—perched on Percy's black bird's nest of hair, apparently grooming itself.

"Um," Percy said, his voice high. "What do I do?"

"Oh boy," Hazel sighed.

Percy's eyes shot towards the door just before another voice said, "He likes you."

Hazel turned. There was a middle-aged man standing in the doorway to the workshop, looking both amused and resigned. He had thinning brown hair streaked with grey and hands peppered with scars. He was pretty fit for an older man, but Hazel did a double-take when she saw the distinctive grey of Athena's eyes.

"Quintus?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

"Yes," the man named Quintus said. "And no."

"Daedalus," Percy said quietly, standing very still under the metal bird.

"There's the ticket, lad," the man said. He lifted his arm—his bare arm, Hazel noted with surprise. "Brody, come here."

With only a little bit of a wince on Percy's part, the bird lifted off in a stunning display of mechanics and aerodynamics to fly the short distance between the two demigods. Hazel was in awe that a bird of metal could fly.

"How did you get here so quickly?" he asked.

"Well, we've only been on this quest for a month…what's your definition of 'quickly'?" Percy asked sarcastically.

"You've been in the Labyrinth—this time—for less than fifteen minutes and you found my workshop. Maps don't work," he said knowledgably, "so I want to know just how you three got here so quickly if you didn't know where you were going."

Hazel said, "Most demigods don't like the underground places because they're too small to swing a sword or fire a bow in. They can't see. I like the underground places because I can sense almost everything coming my way and where certain areas go."

"We've come for Ariadne's String," Annabeth said.

Daedalus's lips twitched. "You're welcome to it." He pointed to the table to Hazel's right. It was one of the few cleared tables there, with the exception of a pile of dirt on the right side of the table.

Hazel extended her senses. No, it wasn't dirt. It was silver, extremely aged silver woven into some other object that Hazel thought might be linen or thread. She silently held her hand out for a high-five to Daedalus. The man slapped it, grinning.

"I missed something," Annabeth said, sounding frustrated.

Hazel raked her fingers through the pile of decomposed thread and aged silver. "This is Ariadne's String, Annabeth. It was just string at the time of when it was made, woven with silver. Hideously expensive for the era, I have no idea what she was thinking when she gave it to Theseus. It might have been enchanted so that the Labyrinth didn't close over it, but unless you're Hecate herself, enchantments don't last longer than eight or ten years."

"How do you know that?" Daedalus asked.

Hazel smiled. "I have a curse on my powers. Every valuable thing that I pull out of the ground will cause bodily harm to someone who isn't me or my father. The more valuable it is, the more dangerous the curse. But the gems that I pulled out of the ground seventy years ago are all perfectly fine."

There was silence as Daedalus obviously tried to reconcile the fourteen-year-old in front of him and the 'seventy years ago' comment.

"She's weird, we love her anyway," Percy summed up succinctly.

Annabeth snorted.

Daedalus shook his head. "To answer your question, Ariadne gave silver string because silver is easier to enchant than something previously living, like wool or leather."

Hazel noted that for future reference. She would probably start doing the scientific method with her gems wrapped in leather and see how long it would take for the curse to break, and if it was affected by different types of leather.

"I'm glad that no one can have Ariadne's String," Annabeth said. "But we're still in danger of invasion into our Camp. How do we destroy the Labyrinth?"

Daedalus shrugged. "You can kill me. The Labyrinth is tied to my life force."

Hazel stilled. "That's it?"

"There's no other way to collapse the Labyrinth," Daedalus said. "I've tried. Even worse, the tunnels that I managed to force to collapse destabilized the buildings overhead. So when the next earthquake hit San Fran…"

Percy covered his face.

Hazel hesitated before she spoke. Her cousins would likely not approve of her going off on her own again, but she was tired. She was used to being alone with her drawings and pencils and the occasional horse. And, frankly, her cousins (and half-siblings) were _exhausting_ with the amount of drama that surrounded them constantly.

"It's not as bad as it could be," Hazel said. "I'm perfectly capable of watching the monster hideouts in the Labyrinth. Besides, this whole…" she gestured expansively, indicating the insanity that she'd been brought into, " _thing_ isn't what I came back for. I can watch for the Doors of Death down here even easier than I can up there."

Annabeth and Percy looked at each other. Hazel knew that they were together, but it was different seeing them able to look at each other and _know_ what the other was thinking.

"We have to get back to Camp first, and there will be a lot of talks," Percy said reluctantly. "Mostly between Thals and me, admittedly, but some full family talks, too."

Hazel prayed for patience. She didn't know who the god or goddess of patience was, but she was pretty sure that there was one, and she desperately needed it.

"Thank you for your time," Hazel told Daedalus, who looked vaguely amused at what was evidently a plea for patience written all over her face.

"You were much more polite than the last group who asked for it," Daedalus said, amusement in his voice.

Percy led the way to leave, and Annabeth just behind him, though she took another look around the workshop.

"Out of curiosity," Daedalus said quietly before she left, "did you figure out what the sphere is?"

Hazel looked at it, with the gears and mechanisms spilling out of it. "It was a demigodly Swiss Army knife. It won't work, though, even if you put it back together. The enchantments are gone. It was probably built by one of Hephaestus's kids."

Daedalus picked up a piece and flipped it over, showing runes etched on the other side. "It works," he said. "It just has to be powered by something. I'll figure it out."

"Neat," she said. She smiled. "Happy puzzling."

"Good-bye," he said.

* * *

As soon as they got back to Camp Half-Blood, Hazel perched atop the watch pavilion for the Labyrinth and hid herself mostly-successfully using the trees.

She said 'mostly successfully' because while no one gave her strange looks when they weren't looking for her, Nico was able to find her in three minutes flat when her cousins and half-siblings realized that she wasn't there. Admittedly, that was over an hour after she settled in her perch, so she was rested enough to dive back into the drama.

"Why are you up here?" Nico asked curiously.

"I don't bother Malcolm while he's reading and he doesn't bother me while I'm drawing," she said, erasing vigorously at the side of the circle that was extremely lopsided. "And no one knows I'm here unless they're looking for me, which suits me just fine." She paused. "I assume you were looking for me?"

He nodded. "All of us Cousins have a meeting."

Hazel shut her notebook and slipped her pencil in the spiral. They stood. Nico offered her his arm, and Hazel took it without hesitation, slipping her arm into the crook of his. "Lead the way," she said cheerfully.

They stepped into howling darkness for but a second, and then emerged into the Poseidon cabin, making the other four jump at their sudden appearance.

"You're a lot easier to do that with than B," Nico said, shooting a glance at his sister. "She tries to light the place up."

"I lived in the Underworld," she said simply.

He paused. "That could make a difference," he said, shrugging.

"Can I assume that Ms. Sally's would-be murderer is enjoying the Fields of Punishment?" Hazel asked.

Nico grinned evilly, and that was answer enough.

"Good," she said simply.

"Hazel," Thalia said. "You want to go back to the Labyrinth?"

"Yes," the daughter of Pluto said. "You people are overwhelming after years of taking care of myself, being dead, or taking care of myself."

Percy burst into laughter.

"Fair enough," Bianca said ruefully. "I know that Nico and I thought that these three were absolutely crazy when we first joined them."

"This past month was more stressful than dying," Hazel said dryly. "I'm seriously ready to go find a horse farm and draw or read for a few weeks."

Thalia looked reluctant.

"I am actually safer in the Labyrinth than I am above ground," Hazel said. "I can lose monsters and find safe spots that normal demigods can't. Your mission is to help Percy win the next war…my mission is to not have another."

"She can check in from time to time," Bianca said, seeing Thalia's reluctance. "And if worse comes to worst and we need help, we can IM her."

"I don't mind popping in and saying 'hi, I'm not dead'," Hazel agreed.

It was a novel thought that she had someone that wanted to check in on her, and she would probably forget, but she could try.

"Every week?" Thalia asked.

Hazel grimaced. "Time is tricky in the Labyrinth. I'll try, but don't panic if I don't IM or show up on time. Just send me an IM if I haven't done it."

Thalia nodded. "Do you have everything you need?"

Hazel nodded. "I have a safe room in the Labyrinth. It's seven left turns from any entrance if you need to find me in person, the door is on the opposite wall that you came in. You might have to find the mark to open it."

"How did you find _that_?" Percy asked.

"I asked myself, what's the most unlikely combination that anyone would do?" Hazel laughed.

"Why not do seven right turns?" Jason asked.

"Because being left-handed used to be called sinister-handed or devil-handed, and my sense of humor is out of whack," she said.

Everyone else burst into laughter.

"Also, seven right turns is a dragon's lair."

Bianca choked and coughed and asked, "You're serious?"

Hazel sighed.

"Yep, she's serious," Thalia said.

"Is there anything else that we had to go over?" Hazel called over the guffaws.

"Communication and location," Thalia said.

They all winced.

"Specifically, Percy and Nico," Thalia said.

"You've made it so that we're trained enough to take care of ourselves, Thalia," Jason said, jumping to the defense. "And, let's be honest, bored demigods are not a good thing in a small house like Ms. Sally's."

Hazel quietly giggled.

"I don't mind so much you guys disappearing," Thalia said tiredly. "It's more of me minding you guys disappearing and then showing up injured or rumored to be very, very dead."

Percy and Nico, the most recent culprits, winced.

"Even better, by the rather terrifying combination of _Kronos_ and _violently exploding volcano_ ," Thalia said. "It stresses me out and it freaks out other people that the Big Three's children are so powerful but still killable, mostly because they wonder what the _Hades_ was bad enough to kill us. And your _mother_ , Percy," Thalia said, and then just stopped.

"We had to tell your mother that you were missing after hours of searching for you," Bianca said flatly. "And then Hazel and Annabeth turned up, saying that you couldn't have possibly survived."

"We are not telling Ms. Sally about the stab wound," Jason said. "Mostly because there's no point and she really would have a conniption at how close you've come to dying so many times in a month."

Percy lifted his shirt, showing the rather large white line on both his abdomen and his back. "No shirtless days for me for a while, huh?"

Hazel honestly felt like she was intruding.

"No," Thalia agreed. "Not around the house, at least."

"Well, darn," Percy said lightly.

And, because most demigods are severely ADD, the topic changed with absolutely no warning. Hazel wondered how she was the only Big Three demigod without ADD or ADHD or dyslexia.

"Are we sending Hazel off?" Jason asked.

"No," Hazel answered. "Mostly because you guys are worse than any bad luck spell and I don't need help."

"'Bad luck spell'?" Jason asked.

"Those exist?" Percy asked, right on the heels of Jason.

"I don't know," Hazel said. "But if they do, you people are worse than any of them."

Bianca laughed. "She has a point. A very good point. We have a habit of things going spectacularly wrong even though we mostly land on our feet."

"I'll see you guys later," Hazel said. "Say, Tuesday?"

"Tuesday sounds good," Percy said.

"Are we doing every Tuesday?" Bianca said.

Hazel nodded. "I'm usually out of the Labyrinth on Tuesdays to do shopping."

"Do you need money?" Thalia asked.

Hazel shook her head. "I have a vase," she said sketching the dimensions in the air, slightly smaller than her torso, "of the gems that I rose back in the thirties and forties. Harmless, now, after time. I pawn them from time to time to keep myself in food and water."

"You're fourteen," Thalia said doubtfully.

Hazel shrugged. "I've never had problems before."

They looked at each other and moved on.

"See you Tuesday!" Bianca said, giving the other girl a brief hug.

"Are you coming by or IMing?" Percy asked.

"Probably coming by," Hazel said. "I don't think that I'll find anything too interesting in three days."

* * *

Two days later, Hazel popped out of the Labyrinth into a field and encountered a skittish and impossibly fast horse blitzing from one end of the field to the other in three seconds flat.

She IMed Percy to tell him that she wasn't coming to the Jacksons' apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone successfully reported the story on Wattpad, it has been taken down. It had to have been one of you guys, I posted my problem because I was still updating chapters. Thank you so much!
> 
> Here's lucky number 13. Fair warning, people, I have ridonkulously long periods of time between updates. The time between chapter 12 and chapter 13 on ff.net was a year and a half. :( 
> 
> I'll see you sometime!  
> -Ruby

**Author's Note:**

> Once I publish chapter 12, this will be the last of what's published on ff.net. WIPs, here we come. :P


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